HERMAS, SHEPHERD OF. - The coexistence in the same subject of male and female sexual glands; normal in certain invertebrates. Young classifies the anomaly, possible in the human species, into true lateral h. (an ovary on one side and a testicle on the other), true unilateral h. (an ovary and a testicle on one side and one of the two on the other), true bilateral h. (an ovary and a testicle on both sides).
Extremely rare in man, in world literature only 38 certain cases are recorded and described, often with a familial occurrence; more frequent is apparent h., with sexual glands of a single type joined to anomalous development of the external characteristics of the sex, which thus become more or less resembling those of the opposite sex (pseudo-h.).
The testicles of true hermaphrodites generally remain in the abdomen and in the inguinal canal, and spermatogenesis, as in cryptorchidism, is inhibited. The ovary too shows evident signs of degeneration or of immaturity. The secondary sexual characteristics are also affected by the anomaly, so that in the same individual there may be somatic traits, some of the male type, others female, generally such as to recall the characteristics of the hypocrinoid and the eunuchoid. On the psychic side, the onset of depressive syndromes is frequent; hermaphrodites are melancholic from an intimate sense of inferiority, emotional, labile in all their manifestations. The libido is generally absent; sometimes they are driven to homosexuality.
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Carlo Pelosio
From the moral-juridical aspect, h. must be taken into consideration in relation to the validity of receiving the sacrament of Orders and of Matrimony. Regarding the former, where there is doubt as to sex, there is also an incapacity to receive and to exercise Orders; ordination and the exercise of priestly acts must be positively prevented in view of the grave harm to which invalidity would expose the common good and the rights of third parties; on the other hand, there is no particular right of the individual to the reception of sacred Orders (v. IRREGULARITY).
With regard to marriage, if the hermaphrodite is impotent he cannot contract marriage, which however cannot be impeded if the impotence (v.) is doubtful (CIC, can. 1068 § 2), and the sex is determinable.