The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has released a set of guidelines that prohibit surgical and chemical processes intended to enact a so-called gender transition for the patient receiving the intervention.
In a “Doctrinal Note” drafted on March 20, the bishops explicitly state that certain types of bodily interventions including puberty halters and so-called gender reassignment surgery can not be practiced by any type of Catholic healthcare service, as they deeply harm the human condition.
“Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures,” they proclaim.
Bishops contributing to the guidelines note that while today’s technology brings many important treatments that have led to the treatments for many ailments, it also “produces interventions that are injurious to the true flourishing of the human person.”
Also stressed was an essential belief of the Christian faith that “there is an order in the natural world that was designed by its Creator and that this created order is good,” which we as humans are bound to respect.
The guidelines assert that irreversible changes pushed by many as a cure for “gender dysphoria” or “gender incongruence” do not respect “the fundamental order of the human person as an intrinsic unity of body and soul, with a body that is sexually differentiated.”
The bishops declared that no person is born inside of the “wrong body,” writing, “The soul does not come into existence on its own and somehow happens to be in this body, as if it could just as well be in a different body.”
Political issues have come up in discussion for the organization before — members of the conference reportedly gathered for a ‘Fall Assembly’ at the end of last year to discuss a myriad of political issues including the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the church’s response to abuse within its ranks.
USCCB posted about the doctrine committee’s response on Twitter, sharing a quote image reading, “The mission of Catholic health care services is nothing less than to carry on the healing ministry of Jesus, to provide healing at every level, physical, mental, and spiritual.”
U.S. Bishops’ Doctrine Committee Issues Guidance to Catholic Health Care Institutions on Respecting the Fundamental Order of the Human Body. Read the complete statement here: https://t.co/m90MEOPQ6P pic.twitter.com/4rPiuKqe2s
— U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (@USCCB) March 20, 2023
