Pope Francis shares a laugh with Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, right, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Msgr. Armando Matteo, secretary of the dicastery’s doctrinal section, during a meeting in the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican Dec. 18, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican press office announced that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith’s declaration on human dignity, said to include a faith-based critique of “gender ideologies” and surrogacy, will be released April 8.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the dicastery, and Msgr. Armando Matteo, secretary of the doctrinal section of the dicastery, along with Dr. Paola Scarcella, a professor of medicine and director of catechesis for persons with disabilities with the Community of Sant’Egidio, will speak at a Vatican news conference, the press office announced April 2.
In an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE in January, Cardinal Fernández had said, “We are preparing a very important document on human dignity which includes not only social issues, but also a strong critique of moral issues such as sex change, surrogacy, gender ideologies, etc.”
The social issues would include anything that impacts human dignity, such as immigration, poverty, war and environmental degradation.
“As Christians, we must not tire of insisting on the primacy of the human person and the defense of his or her dignity beyond every circumstance,” Pope Francis told members of the doctrinal dicastery in late January.
The pope said he hoped the new document “will help us, as a church, to always be close to all those who, without fanfare, in concrete daily life, fight and personally pay the price for defending the rights of those who do not count.”
