Trans people can now be baptised, godparents and witnesses at weddings, Vatican announces

Transgender people are now allowed to be baptised, become godparents in baptisms and also witnesses at weddings, Church's doctrinal office confirmed on Thursday.

Pope Francis has been making a few attempts in recent years in hopes of making the Church more welcoming to the LGBTIQ community.

“Even if we are sinners, he (God) draws near to help us,” he told a transgender person in July.

The decision, however, was taken after Brazilian Bishop José Negri wrote to the Church's Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith with six questions regarding LGBTIQ people and their participation in baptism and matrimony.

The Church's doctrinal office published on its website three pages in response, all signed by the dicastery's head - Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández - and all approved by Pope Francis.

The document states that a transgender person can receive baptism under the same conditions as other believers even after undergoing hormonal treatment and gender reassignment surgery.

Transgender people, according to the document, can also become a godfather or godmother.

The document states that priests are free to refuse requests upon proof of “danger of scandal, undue legitimisation or disorientation in the educational sphere of the church community".

On the question of whether same-sex parents who adopt or use a surrogate mother could have a child baptised in the Church, the Vatican said a priest's decision would have to be based on the "well-founded hope that he or she would be educated in the Catholic religion". 

The same was said on whether a person in a same-sex relationship could be a godparent at a Church baptism, as long as they "lead a life that conforms to the faith".