Vatican’s doctrinal office expected to release document on gender theory

Vatican City, Jun 14, 2019 / 11:00 am

The Vatican's doctrinal office is preparing a document which will address Church teaching and the anthropology of the human person in the context of so-called gender theory, according to a Vatican official.

According to a source, speaking to CNA on background, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is expected to publish in the coming months a more in-depth theological and anthropological text than the guide that was published by the Congregation for Catholic Education earlier this week.

With "Male and Female He Created Them," issued June 10, the Congregation for Catholic Education did not intend to give a detailed treatment of the topic of gender in all areas, but to provide a guide for those in Catholic school and university environments on how to approach and engage with the advancement of gender theory in contemporary society, the source said.

The document focuses on the educational context because it is the congregation's competency, according to the source, though experts and other Vatican departments were consulted as is ordinary practice.

The 31-page text, signed in February by Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, head of the Congregation for Catholic Education, was in production for three years, and came about largely due to the requests of bishops on ad limina visits.

The source told CNA that the education congregation has heard from a large number of bishops looking for support from the Vatican on the topic of so-called gender theory in the educational environment.

Archbishop Angelo Vincenzo Zani, secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, stated last year that his department was preparing a document on gender theory.

At the time, Zani said the document was expected within one to two months. He spoke at a March 2018 study conference on education and teaching at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.

Zani said on the same occasion that another "deeper" document on the same topic was in the works at the CDF.

Writing for L'Osservatore Romano this week, prefect Versaldi said the document from Catholic Education "traces history, focuses on reasonable meeting points and proposes the Christian anthropological vision."

He criticized an ideology which "induces educational projects and legislative guidelines that promote a personal identity and an affective intimacy radically detached from the biological diversity between male and female."