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CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2024 / 15:20 pm (CNA).

The Texas Supreme Court has upheld a state ban on performing transgender procedures on minors, ordering that the state is within its authority to outlaw extreme medical treatments for young boys and girls. 

The court said in its 8-1 ruling that the state Legislature made “a permissible, rational policy choice to limit the types of available medical procedures for children” when it passed the law last year. 

The measure prohibits doctors from performing genital surgeries and other types of surgeries on minors as a means to facilitate a “gender transition.” It also forbids doctors from prescribing puberty blockers or any other drugs to delay the normal development of puberty and forbids cross-sex “hormone therapy” for children.

The state high court had last year allowed the law to go into effect while litigation against it played out. A lower court originally blocked the legislation. 

In its Friday ruling allowing the law to be enforced, the court pointed to “the relative nascency of both gender dysphoria and its various modes of treatment,” as well as the state Legislature’s “express constitutional authority to regulate the practice of medicine.”

The state statute “does not unconstitutionally deprive parents of their rights or physicians or health care providers of an alleged property right in their medical licenses or claimed right to occupational freedom,” the justices said.

Nor does the law “unconstitutionally deny or abridge equality under the law because of sex or any other characteristic asserted by plaintiffs,” they wrote. 

The ACLU of Texas, which had sued to stop the law’s enforcement, in a press release described the law as “anti-transgender” and claimed that it “threatens the health and lives of Texas transgender youth.”

“We will continue to fight measures like [the law],” attorney Karen Loewy said in the release. “These youth and their families deserve no less.”

State Attorney General Ken Paxton, meanwhile, said on X after the ruling that the law “[protects] children from dangerous gender confusion procedures by prohibiting puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and mutilative surgeries on minors.” 

“We will always defend children in Texas from these irreversible procedures,” Paxton said. “My office will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that doctors and medical institutions follow the law.”

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. / Credit: Vlas Telino studio/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 1, 2024 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

With the publication of new regulations, Pope Francis has made it clear that employees of the Fabric of St. Peter must profess the Catholic faith, wear decent and appropriate clothing, and not have visible tattoos or piercings, among other requirements.

The Office of the Holy See has published a chirograph of Pope Francis on the Statute and Regulations of the Chapter of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, which determines the norms for the staff of the Fabric of St. Peter, the entity responsible for the conservation and maintenance of St. Peter’s Basilica. A chirograph is an order signed by the pope.

All employees must comply, including the so-called “sampietrini,” those in charge of admittance, surveillance, cleaning, and maintenance of the Vatican basilica.

The document, published on June 29, establishes that employees must “take care of their outward appearance in accordance with the demands and customs of the work environment.”

The Holy Father thus determined that “visible tattoos on the skin and piercings are prohibited.” Likewise, employees must “wear decent clothing appropriate to the activity they are going to perform.”

It will also be mandatory for them to “profess the Catholic faith and live according to its principles” as well as demonstrate that they are married in the Church by presenting a “canonical marriage certificate.” They must also provide baptism and confirmation certificates and demonstrate that they have no criminal record.

The chirograph also states that members of the Fabric staff “commit to observing exemplary religious and moral conduct, even in their private and family life, in accordance with the doctrine of the Church.”

“Staff are required to behave politely while on duty, [be] respectful of the sacred place, and act ... properly toward others and [in consideration of] the surroundings,” the document reads.

Also, “special care will be taken to observe the pontifical secret, in accordance with current regulations.”

Likewise, without prior authorization from the archpriest in charge of the basilica, “no one may issue statements and interviews, not even through digital instruments and platforms, regarding the people, activities, environments, and guidelines of the Fabric.”

Furthermore, Article 10 establishes that the staff is obliged to strictly observe confidentiality and will not be able to “provide to anyone who does not have the right to it information about events or news that they have learned due to their work or service.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.