Gender of priests

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Henry4

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I am not sure if this is the appropriate forum for my query. According to canon 1024 of the code of canon law :“only a baptised man can validly receive sacred ordination”. That means that even if a woman were ordained, her ordination would be invalid. My question is : there was a priest in Italy who had a sex change. After the sex change, did he/she remain validly ordained or not?
 
I would imagine that this person is still a validly ordained priest but they would not be allowed to have a parish any more due to undergoing the operation and might be laicised. I have never heard of this
 
hope said:
There is no such thing as a sex “change” only mutilation of the body. You can’t change DNA.
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Slight clarification if I may. A person’s sex is a phenotype. The genotype determines the phenotype in almost all cases for this, but not always. There are people born perfectly female with XY genes, and there are other non-standard combinations.

That said, I do agree an operation cannot change a person’s biological sex.
 
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So which determines validity for ordination, genotype or phenotype; or is this an impediment either way? [i.e. Canon law would make it illicit, but could it still be valid?]
 
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I haven’t heard of this until now a quick research
Your genotype is your complete heritable genetic identity; it is your unique genome that would be revealed by personal genome sequencing. However, the word genotype can also refer just to a particular gene or set of genes carried by an individual. For example, if you carry a mutation that is linked to diabetes, you may refer to your genotype just with respect to this mutation without consideration of all the other gene variants that your may carry.

In contrast, your phenotype is a description of your actual physical characteristics. This includes straightforward visible characteristics like your height and eye color, but also your overall health, your disease history, and even your behavior and general disposition. Do you gain weight easily? Are you anxious or calm? Do you like cats? These are all ways in which you present yourself to the world, and as such are considered phenotypes. However, not all phenotypes are a direct result of your genotype;
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Certainly not. If this person attempted to undergo a sex change, she is lost and should pray - she has deeper problems to be concerned with than her desire to become a priest. God created us with certain natures and we have to respect that, even if it makes us suffer (especially if it makes us suffer! Blessed are those who mourn).
 
The Church would still consider her a priest, because they would consider her to be a him. They probably would not give her an assignment, for the same reason. IOW @halogirl is exactly right.

I have had online conversations with someone who was laicised and then transitioned to being a woman. (not immediately) It has happened.
 
Wesrock said:
There are people born perfectly female with XY genes, and there are other non-standard combinations.
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If you are referring to women — and they are women — with androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS), they are not exactly “perfectly female”. They do not have ovaries, and I think I am correct in saying this, they don’t have a uterus either. Otherwise, they are entirely female, and there are no visual clues to the contrary. Nothing is obviously “wrong” until they reach adolescence and end up never having periods. It is at that time, that they go to a gynecologist and discover the truth. As an aside, they are often very striking, elegant, lovely women.
 
Henry4 said:
My question is : there was a priest in Italy who had a sex change. After the sex change, did he/she remain validly ordained or not?
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Treating this as a hypothetical (although I believe it has happened before), the requirement for ordination is more than simply being a baptised male. The Church operates at a physical level so in order to be a spiritual father a man also needs to be capable of being a spiritual father - in other words, he has to have at least one testicle at the time of ordination. A sex change operation does not affect the validity of orders however a priest in this situation would be suspended from ministry since either mental illness or self-mutilation (that is, an intentional act which limits a person’s capacity for acting in an authentically human way) would canonically prevent them from exercising the priesthood. Ultimately they would end by being laicised since their situation is realistically not going to get any better.
 
InThePew said:
The Church operates at a physical level so in order to be a spiritual father a man also needs to be capable of being a spiritual father - in other words, he has to have at least one testicle at the time of ordination.
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So a man who lost both testicles prior to ordination due to cancer, war, an accident, or some act of violence on him by another, doesn’t get to become a priest? Doesn’t seem to be very fair when it’s not his choice.
 
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@Tis_Bearself
I think the big difference here is something that is not willed by the man happening to him in the examples you give, compared to deliberate and definitely willed self-mutilation as Fr stated.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
So a man who lost both testicles prior to ordination due to cancer, war, an accident, or some act of violence on him by another, doesn’t get to become a priest?
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No. It’s not a question of fault but rather one of capacity. I have heard though of a few examples of a seminarian’s ordination being brought forward because of something like treatment for testicular cancer.
 
Still seems like a bizarre criteria and I would certainly hope that the Church would find ways around it for otherwise good candidates who had stuff happen to their bodies that they didn’t will or even want to have occur.
 
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