Vatican: Transgender people can receive baptism

The Vatican said Wednesday that transgender people can receive baptisms, expanding the Catholic Church’s acceptance of LGBTQ members.

“A transgender person, even if they have undergone hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery, can receive baptism under the same conditions as other faithful, if there are no situations in which there is a risk of generating a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful,” the church said in a document published Wednesday.

A Brazilian bishop questioned the Vatican in July over LGBTQ people’s involvement in routine Catholic practices. The response was approved by Pope Francis on Oct. 31.

The document also concludes that transgender people can be godparents and witnesses at religious weddings and that people in same-sex relationships can also witness weddings, but not be godparents.

The Vatican’s openness to include transgender people in the church is the latest step it has taken to show acceptance for the LGBTQ community.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has historically rejected the concept of gender transition, leaving trangenders people out of the church entirely.

“It is a major step for trans inclusion … it is big and good news,” Francis DeBernardo, executive director of Maryland-based New Ways Ministry, told The Associated Press.

DeBernardo said the statement seemed to be a reversal of a 2015 Vatican decision to bar a transgender man in Spain from becoming a godparent.

The move “proves that the Catholic Church can — and does — change its mind about certain practices and policies,” he said.

While doctrines criticizing LGBTQ people are still enshrined in church law, Pope Francis has worked for years to loosen restrictions on LGBTQ people around the church.

Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest who has advocated for years for greater LGBTQ inclusion in the church, welcomed the new policy.

“In many dioceses and parishes, including in the U.S., transgender Catholics have been severely restricted from participating in the life of the church, not because of any canon law, but stemming from the decisions of bishops, priests and pastoral associates,” he said in a statement to the AP.

“So the Vatican’s statement is a clear recognition not only of their personhood, but of their place in their own church,” he said. “I hope that it helps the Catholic Church treat them less as problems and more as people.”