The document is an official response to a dubia submitted by Brazilian Bishop Giuseppe Negri of Santo Amaro seeking guidance on the issue. It was propagated by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed by Pope Francis. However, in a somewhat ambiguous clarification, the guidance specifies that in order for individuals with gender-identity afflictions to be baptized, it must not cause “scandal” or “disorientation.”

The Vatican released a document Wednesday affirming that individuals suffering from gender-identity disorders are allowed to be baptized or be named as godparents under specific circumstances.

The document is an official response to a dubia submitted by Brazilian Bishop Giuseppe Negri of Santo Amaro seeking guidance on the issue. It was propagated by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed by Pope Francis.

However, in a somewhat ambiguous clarification, the guidance specifies that in order for individuals with gender-identity afflictions to be baptized, it must not cause “scandal” or “disorientation.”

This same stipulation applied to their eligibility to act as godparents or witness marriages, according to the Vatican.

The ruling’s ambiguity is consistent with a variety of theological statements from the Vatican under Pope Francis and can make understanding how to implement the ruling difficult for clergy.

Father Brian Graebe, a priest with the Archdiocese of New York who holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, told Fox News Digital that the Vatican’s guidance is not contradictory to church teaching, but possibly “deficient.”

“There’s nothing in the document that contradicts church teachings. My reaction to it when I read it yesterday was that it’s deficient. The problem isn’t so much in what it says as in what it leaves unsaid,” Graebe said.

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