The Vatican had come out in support of puberty-blocking drugs for children who wished to halt or suppress their natural development into a man or woman. This shift in position raised serious concerns. Suppressing a child’s hormones was widely seen as a form of chemical child abuse. Children who were confused or curious about their gender, critics argued, should not have been encouraged to alter or destroy their innate biology.
In line with a growing embrace of moral relativism, the Vatican no longer appeared to uphold a clear belief in objective right and wrong—even in matters as fundamental as human biology. The Catholic Church seemed aware it was losing members, and by relaxing its moral standards, it appeared to be attempting to attract new followers. Essentially, the Vatican signaled that Catholics should tolerate the behavior of others, even when it clashed with traditional moral teachings. Taking this further, Catholics were now expected to tolerate a child’s gender transition using puberty-blocking drugs, regardless of personal disagreement.
In fact, Laura Palazzani—a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and of the National Bioethics Committee—had recently endorsed widespread public funding for these drugs through the Italian National Health Services.
Vatican support youth with gender dysphoria to get puberty-blocking drugs from the National Health Services
That’s right: Laura Palazzani of the Vatican had endorsed the Italian Medicines Agency’s (AIFA) decision to make the drug triptorelin (Trp) available through taxpayer funding under the National Health Services. According to Palazzani, the drug was to be used “only in very circumscribed cases, with caution, with a case-by-case evaluation.” Her comments were published in the March 2nd issue of the Official Journal.
As a result of this policy, teenagers with gender dysphoria were now able to claim suicidal ideation in order to obtain a drug that suppressed their natural biological development. In some cases, adolescents who wished to transition reportedly engaged in self-harm if they were denied access to hormone-blocking drugs—substances intended to make them feel more aligned with the gender they identified with.
Children who had been confused about their gender—often encouraged to question and even change it—were now being urged by the Vatican to block their hormones as early as ages 10 to 12. Several doctors and lawyers, including those from Scienza & Vita and the Rosario Livatino Study Center, had issued warnings about the unknown risks associated with these drugs, as well as the psychological consequences that could follow once adolescents were allowed to embark on this path.
Underlying endocrine and psychological issues often led children to consider using drugs to experiment with gender expression. By making these anti-puberty drugs available, society had effectively told confused adolescents to inflict harm on their endocrine systems, their mental health, and their natural biology. The consequences of these interventions could be lifelong—exacerbating mental health struggles and increasing the risk of further self-harm down the road. When adolescents were medically altered to induce biological changes, it often resulted in a misalignment between their physical development and cognitive maturity.
As the Vatican endorsed this gender-altering ideology, global repercussions for the Catholic Church began to emerge. Members were being compelled to tolerate what many saw as the biological and hormonal mutilation of children. With youth increasingly encouraged to reject their innate gender, a wave of confusion and psychological distress spread. These developments threatened to erode the foundation of family structure and marked a troubling departure from principles of healthy child-rearing.