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Dear Father Angelo,
Good morning and thank you for the invaluable work you do.
I would like to ask you a question that has received partly conflicting answers from various theologians.
The question is: would a priest, if he underwent an operation to change his sex, remain so?
Or, once the presupposition of masculinity disappears, just as the real presence in the Eucharist disappears once material accidents have disappeared, does he also cease to be a priest?
I thank you and remember you in prayer.
F.R.
Priest’s answer
Dearly beloved,
1.sex, before being morphological, is genetic. It’s written in our DNA.
Therefore, no matter how much one changes one’s morphological sex, one cannot change one’s ontological and genetic identity.
2. If a priest changed sex, he would certainly be suspended by the ecclesiastical authority because evidently there would be something that wasn’t entirely working, at least on a psychological level.
But for this reason he does not cease to be a priest.
He remains a priest eternally.
3. If he celebrated the Eucharist, he would be committing a sacrilege because he has been suspended a divinis.
The consecration, however, remains valid, although illicit.
4.The comparison you made with the Eucharist is irrelevant because, according to Aristotle’s categories, genetic sex is part of quality. And therefore it falls under accidents.
Again according to the same categories assumed by Catholic theology, sex is not part of the substance of a person.
Whether you belong to one sex or another is not essential. He is always a person of the highest and same dignity.
5. Whoever changes sex does not change the substance, but the appearances of a person.
6.Instead, I am pleased with your theological precision regarding the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
I bless you and remember you in my prayers.
Father Angelo