The Vatican issued a new document reaffirming its opposition to several social issues, including sex-change operations and surrogacy, which it referred to as "grave threats" against human dignity.

Pope Francis approved the 20-page "Infinite Dignity," which had been in development for five years. It reiterates the Vatican's condemnation of "gender theory" and insists that mankind and womankind are two different biological entities created by God, and any change in this design means trying to "make oneself God."

Any intervention for purposes of sex change, according to the document, runs the risk of undermining the unique dignity bestowed upon individuals from conception and sets the distinction between surgeries for transitioning, to which it is opposed, and genital anomalies that it suggests could be either congenital or acquired and may be rectified by medical aid.

However, its doctrine office, while condemning the gender theory, takes a swipe at countries criminalizing homosexuality, terming it a crime against human dignity. The paper also recalls the Catholic doctrine against abortion and euthanasia. It considers the practice of surrogacy undignified, both for the woman who is the surrogate mother and for the child.

Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandes, the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, is the new leader of the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Fernandes had authored a document earlier that would approve the blessing of same-sex unions, even then provoking tensions between liberal-minded and conservative bishops.

The release of the document comes days after Pope Francis called for a worldwide ban on surrogacy, arguing that it turns children into commodities and violates the dignity and rights of women and children.

Further, in a speech on Sunday that lambasted the threats of peace and human dignity, the Pontiff brought to the fore a number of issues: the war in Ukraine, the Israeli-Hamas conflict, nuclear proliferation, climate change, and migration.