As part of Pope Francis' continued efforts to bring the Catholic Church into the 21st century, the Vatican recently published a statement declaring that transgender members of the church can now be baptized (which includes children and adolescents), become godparents, and serve as witnesses to Catholic weddings in response to an inquiry by a Brazilian bishop. This comes after Pope Francis personally decried laws that criminalized homosexuality earlier this year, proving himself to be a more progressive Pope- and granted, that bar isn't very high, but we have to take what we can get.
The document does specify that these things can only be carried out without "risk of generating a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful", but refuses to clarify what exactly that means. There could be potential for individual Catholic officials to interpret this guideline differently and in a way that continues to exclude transgender members of the church, but on paper, this seems like a big step forward- if only because it's making far-right American "tradcaths" have meltdowns.
Now if only the church could deal with all their other scandals.
