The Vatican has ruled that a Spanish man who was born a woman cannot be godfather to his nephew as he is not living a life “consistent with the faith.”
The Bishop of Cádiz had originally ruled that Alex Salinas, 21, could not be a godfather but then reportedly backed down following a storm of anger on social media and the Spanish press.
However, he also referred the matter to the Vatican who have now ruled it is “impossible” for Salinas to be “admitted to the position of either godmother or godfather.”
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the Vatican body that upholds Church teaching, said that Salinas’s transsexual behaviour “reveals in a public manner an attitude opposed to the moral duty” to accept the sex and gender with which he was born.
The CDF adds, however, that “one should not see this as discrimination”, but that it is simply self-evident that Alex objectively “lacks the requirements” necessary to assume the responsibility of a godparent.
La Sexta Noticias says Salinas will now “apostatise” over the decision, claiming he feels “very angry” and “ashamed”.
Despite the Church teaching that baptism is required for salvation, Alex says the parents of the child have also decided not to have him baptised in protest at the decision. They will instead “education him in the Christian faith”, but not within the Church.
In one of the lesser-reported passages from his recent “eco-encyclical” Laudato Si, Pope Francis condemns gender theory, saying in section 155: “The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation.”
“It is not a healthy attitude which would seek ‘to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it’,” he adds.