To that end, the bishops wrote, “Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures.”

“They must employ all appropriate resources to mitigate the suffering of those who struggle with gender incongruence, but the means used must respect the fundamental order of the human body.”

The statement, titled “Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body,” is intended to provide moral criteria for discerning which medical interventions promote the authentic good of the person and which are injurious. The statement was developed in consultation with medical ethicists, physicians, psychologists, and moral theologians.