The Vatican released a document on Monday blasting sex-change surgeries and gender ideology as a threat to the “unique dignity” of a human being.

Pope Francis has been outspoken about his disapproval of gender ideology, saying in March 2023 that the blurring of the biological sexes was one of the most “dangerous” ideologies today. The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published a 20-page document arguing that “attempts have been made to introduce new rights” on gender “that are neither fully consistent with those originally defined nor always acceptable.” (RELATED: ‘Canceling Out Humanity’: Pope Francis Slams ‘Ugly’ Gender Ideology)

“Teaching about the need to respect the natural order of the human person, Pope Francis affirmed that ‘creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift,” the document reads. “At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and this means, in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created.’ It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”

Pope Francis claimed on March 1 that gender ideology was “ugly” and undermines the innate differences between men and women. The Vatican’s new document further emphasized this, saying that gender ideology eliminates the “anthropological basis of the family.”

The document also noted that it was “unacceptable” that gender ideology tries to “assert [itself] as absolute and unquestionable.”

Francis came under fire in December by more conservative members of the Catholic Church for endorsing a blessing for same-sex couples, which the pope emphasized was not to be taken as a marriage blessing.

The Vatican also denounced surrogacy in its new doctrinal paper, claiming that the practice reduces one’s life to “a mere object.” The Vatican explains that surrogacy violates the “dignity” of both the mother and the child and argues that all children should have the “right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”

“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” the document reads.

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