Vatican City
— The Vatican <http://www.vatican.va/>
has demanded that members of religious orders who change
their sex be expelled and that transgendered people not
be allowed to enter religious orders in the first place,
according to a document published Friday by the Catholic
news agency Adista <http://www.adistaonline.it/>.
The confidential
document, which the Vatican did not want made public,
makes clear that the church has been forced to face
head-on the issue of transgendered people among its
members. The document was signed by Cardinal Eduardo
Martinez Somalo, the Vatican's head of religious orders,
and urges its recipients not to divulge the contents,
owing to "the delicacy and complexity of the
situation."
The document says that
any member of a religious order who
"undergoes a sex
change must be expelled from the religious house for
the good of all the souls."
It also says that priests
do not have the right to change baptism registers to
reflect a believer's new sex, even if the change is
recognized by civil authorities. The document also quotes
the Vatican's head of doctrine, Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, as firmly rejecting the admission of
transsexuals into religious orders.
"When there is a
sensible doubt over the presence of transsexualism due
to obvious external attitudes and evidence given by
those charged with selecting candidates, the Superior
can demand a careful medical and psychological
examination," Ratzinger said.
"In the case where
there is a grave and irreversible pathology of
transsexualism, the candidate cannot be admitted in a
viable way to the institute or religious
society."
