“Persons with gender dysphoria are…in need of our care and pastoral accompaniment. Because of the fundamental body-soul unity of the human person, the sex of the person and the sex of the body are the same,” the guidance says with regard to transgender people. “Every one of us is created as either male or female. Thus, to live according to the truth of our human nature, we are to embrace our bodily sex.”
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The guidance then says, “A person who publicly identifies as a different gender than his or her biological sex or has attempted ‘gender transitioning’ may not be Baptized, Confirmed, or received into full communion in the Church, unless the person has repented.”
“Repentance does not require reversing the physical changes to the body that the person has undergone. The experience of incongruence in one’s sexual identity is not sinful if it does not arise from the person’s free will, nor would it stand in the way of Christian Initiation,” the guidance continues. “However, deliberate, freely chosen and manifest behaviors to redefine one’s sex do constitute such an obstacle.”
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According to the Washington Post, while other dioceses have issued guidance on transgender people, several experts say this may be the first official statement given that denies them access to sacraments such as baptism, communion, and confirmation.
The document similarly outlines the denial of baptism and communion for openly gay people, though it does make allowances for the children of same-sex couples to be baptized, confirmed, and receive communion “if the child is properly prepared and disposed.”
