Theologian wants Church to accept sexual and gender diversity

Theologian on transgenderism: Church violates its own standards

Commitment to personal dignity is being counteracted

Freiburg – The Church advocates for diversity – in social, ethnic, and religious terms. However, Marianne Heimbach-Steins criticizes that the Church's rejection of sexual and gender diversity undermines its commitment to human dignity

Münster-based social ethicist Marianne Heimbach-Steins accuses the Church of failing to adhere to its own ethical standards when it comes to transgender people. "The defensive struggle waged by the Magisterium against 'gender' and the recognition of sexual diversity counteracts its commitment to the unconditional recognition of human dignity," the theologian writes in the new issue of the "Herder Thema" series, entitled "Visibly Recognized: Diversity of Sexual Identities." The consequences of this paradox are not marginal and also affect other people. Heimbach-Steins asks: "How can this concern be credibly represented when members of sexual minorities are denied this very dignity because they want to live according to their respective identities?"

The Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith most recently set out its position on transgender issues, among other things, in the document "Dignitas Infinita" (2024). This document condemns, for example, gender reassignment and gender-affirming surgery. The Roman Magisterium's position shows that this issue has not played a role until recently, according to Heimbach-Steins. "Recently, it has been taken up as a continuation of the struggle against sexual self-determination rights and against what the doctrinal authorities call, equally unspecifically, 'gender ideology' or 'gender theory.'"

Approaches to Recognition

Reactions to the diverse experiences of gender and sexuality range from ignorance to moral discrediting, Heimbach-Steins continued. This ill-suited the Church's recognition of diversity in social, ethnic, and religious terms. In the encyclical "Fratelli tutti" (2020), Pope Francis advocated a concrete universalism and a policy of recognizing the dignity of every individual "that takes into account the diversity and vulnerability of one's (potential) neighbor."

The holistic ecological-social approach of Francis's encyclical "Laudato si" (2015) already offers a foundation for recognizing the diversity of life, which could also be used to address gender diversity in a respectful manner. "This, however, requires a thorough revision of the thought patterns with which the Roman Catholic magisterium immunizes itself against the life experiences and testimony of queer people, against a critical biblical-theological hermeneutics, and against the findings of human science," emphasizes Heimbach-Steins.

An "essentialist understanding of human 'nature'," as expressed in many Vatican statements on sexuality, displaces the role of the person as the creator of their own life and fails to recognize that "the gift of life" is not simply something given. Instead, human beings, created in the image of God, have the creative task of developing their own identity.

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