Transsexual persons, even if they have undergone hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery, may receive the Sacrament of Baptism “if there are no situations in which there is a risk of generating public scandal or confusion among the faithful”. The children of homosexual couples should be baptized even if they are born from a surrogate mother, provided there is a well-founded hope that they will be educated in the Catholic faith.
These clarifications were issued on Wednesday in a response to questions (dubia) submitted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) by Bishop José Negri of Santo Amaro, Brazil.
The document, signed by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandéz, the Prefect of the DDF, and approved by Pope Francis on 31 October, answered six questions concerning the possible participation of transsexual and homoaffective persons in the Sacraments of Baptism and Matrimony.
The answers “re-propose, in substance, the fundamental contents of what has already been affirmed in the past by the Dicastery concerning these matters.”
The DDF affirmed that transsexual persons, whether adults, children, or adolescents, can be baptized, provided they are “well-prepared and willing, and that there is no occasion of scandal.”