A Spanish bishop has caved in to pressure and allowed a transsexual man to become a godfather. The Bishop of Cádiz and Ceuta will now allow Alex Salinas, who was born a woman, to become godfather to his nephew, his local parish priest has said.

Salinas claims that the priest told him he had spoken with the diocese, who said the decision to prevent him becoming a godfather had been a “mistake”.

“I am very happy because of what this means for me, but above all, because what is good for me is good for other transsexuals who are Catholic and want to be part of the Church,” Salinas said.

Breitbart London reported last week that the bishop had prevented Salinas from becoming godfather because he does not “live a life consistent with the faith”.

Now La Vanguardia says the diocese reversed its decision following an intense campaign of outrage on social media, including a change.org petition. The parents even cancelled the baptism in protest at the decision.

Carla Antonelli, Spain’s only transsexual parliamentarian, criticised the original decision, but now said she was “satisfied” the Church had bowed to pressure and loftily declared: “It takes a wise man to recognise that he is wrong, and the Church has had 2,000 years to learn how to do this.”

Antonelli added that the original decision was not “worthy of the Word of God” because Jesus had not promoted this kind of “hate”.

Although the Catholic Church has not officially commented on transsexualism, Pope Francis has consistently condemned gender theory. In one homily he said that men and women were not “interchangeable” and that both have “complementary roles”.

He told an audience: “I wonder whether the so-called theory of gender is not an expression of frustration and resignation, which tries to erase sexual differences because it doesn’t know how to handle them.”

Theologians also argue that transsexualism cannot be compatible with Church teaching.

“Attempting to change the sexual appearance of one’s body because of one ‘feelings’ is like trying to make a square circle,” writes Fr Vincent Serpa of Catholic Answers. “Better to go with what God has already created.”

“Even when a person goes through all the operations and plastic surgery, one’s DNA remains what one was born with. Besides not being honest, such attempts constitute sins of mutilation of the body,” he adds.