The Congregation for Catholic Education has published a document titled: Male and Female He Created Them: Towards a path of dialogue on the question of gender theory in education. It is intended to be an instrument to "help guide Catholic contributions to the ongoing debate about human sexuality, and to address the challenges that emerge from gender ideology." Unfortunately, it seems to have been written by people who know nothing about trans people other than that which they have read in the transphobic tabloid press.
The key claims made in this document are:
that the debate about gender identity aims to "annihilate the concept of nature" and creating an educational crisis and destabilising the family as an institution. However, far from seeking to annihilate the concept of nature I believe that we are expressing and living the reality of gender diversity which exists in nature.
the debate around gender is designed to challenge traditional understandings of family life. "This oscillation between male and female becomes, at the end of the day, only a provocative display against so-called traditional frameworks and one which ignores the suffering of those who have live situations of sexual indeterminacy. I suspect that I would challenge the writers of the document's traditional understanding of family life. It is up to each family to develop its own notion of family life - which I hope would be based on love and mutual respect, not on any concept imposed by others. Why should any of us be bound to present ourselves in any particular way? I don't know if those of us who enjoy the ambiguity and freedom to present as male on some occasions, female at others or androgynously would describe themselves as 'oscillating'. What does it matter to anyone else if they do? The Beaumont Society exists to support those who are suffering because of their sexual or gender 'indeterminacy'. This is a suffering caused by those who espouse the views within this Vatican document.
those who promote discussion of gender identity are being unquestioning and absolutist. "While the ideologies of gender claim to respond, as Pope Francis has indicated, to what are at times understandable aspirations, they also seek to assert themselves as absolute and unquestionable, even dictating how children should be raised." I really do not understand where the Vatican gets this idea. At the Beaumont Society we recognise that there are many ways to be trans. We are keen to explore and celebrate the diversity of gender identity. We would certainly not 'dictate' how children should be raised - other than with love, respect and encouragement.
post-modern ideology means that human identity "has become the choice of the individual, one which can also change over time". "This has led to calls for public recognition of the right to choose one's gender." Rejecting the notion that gender is a matter of choice, it says "The view of both sexual identity and the family become subject to the same liquidity and fluidity that characterise other aspects of post-modern culture, often founded on nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants." I was interviewed by Martin Bashir for Radio 4's 6 o'clock News on 10th June on this issue and my reply was, "No-one I know chooses to be trans. Why would they. It must be so much easier to be cisgender. The only choice that trans people have is whether to hide it from other people and endure the torments alone, or to talk about it and risk rejection by family and friends."
gender is not decided upon by individuals but imputed by God. "The Holy Scripture reveals the wisdom of the Creator's design, which has assigned as a task to man his body, his masculinity and femininity." "The family is the natural place for the relationship of reciprocity and communion and defines the family as between man and woman." Actually, I would suggest that if there is a Creator, their design is far more sophisticated than that recognised by the early prophets. We know that there is a great diversity of gender identities and sexualities. Quite clearly that there are many different ways that loving families can be presented.
the church has long tolerated discriminatory conduct. "Indeed it cannot be denied that through the centuries forms of unjust discrimination have been a sad fact of history and have also had an influence within the church." I cannot argue with this statement. Unfortunately, the writers do not seem to realise that they are continuing in this tradition by advocating that their followers should perpetuate this discrimination in the case of trans people.
Thank you Jane for all these posts today. Lots to think about xx
Unfortunately Jane, articles like these grab headlines, which detract from the real progress that has and is being made at grass roots levels within the Roman Catholic church. I agree, there is no substance within the article that matches reality. The paper is very damaging to those who are trying to reconcile their struggle with gender in terms of their faith; it is very unfair of the authors to publish something like that. But then, like so many people, their view is their view and nothing to do with the individuals who they purport to care about.
The vatican have a huge problem in coming to terms with who they are. I read somewhere else that it is estimated that 80 percent of the people there are gay. Not surprising really considering the way they dress!
Petie
Petie
You have just highlighted one of the biggest problems people like us have to face
The automatic assumption that any man who finds a dress or skirt comfortable is gay
It does not apply to non TG women who find trousers comfortable
And what’s so wrong with “people like us” being gay?
Exactly. Don’t all priests wear dresses?
Long and short tunics were normal Roman male clothing
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2006/05/brief-history-of-cassock.html
The third claim, “those promoting discussion of gender identity are being unquestioning and absolutist”, demonstrates a breath-taking level of hypocrisy. The whole driving force behind religion is one of unquestioning absolutism.
Lorraine mentions the progress being made at grassroots level regarding wider acceptance of trans people within the Catholic church. I’d like to hear a bit more about that and from Beaumont members of other faiths who have positive stories about being accepted as they are
Shame nobody had a positive story about trans acceptance in their place of worship. My church is pretty welcoming, however I’m dressed xx
This is St Dorothy xx St._Dorothy_490a1430109de
There is a Christian Transgender group, the Sybils
I do not know much about them apart from their website
http://sibyls.gndr.org.uk/
Thanks Lucy, yes they look very interesting
I think it’s fair to say that this document in no way represents the attitudes towards transgender held by the Church as a whole. There are groups within most of the various denominations which have a very different perspective from the ‘official’ Catholic one. Transgender people, for example, are accepted in some Anglican churches. I for one, after an admittedly long struggle, feel no conflict between being an occasional crossdresser and living out my Christian faith. There is an interesting ongoing debate across the entire Christian church about this issue which is now receiving far more public attention than in the past. Books like David Walliams’s Boy in a Dress may have helped to bring the issue into the open . Churches are being challenged to make their position clear.
Eleanor, wrong. One of the duties for Catholics is to question their faith. The days when the parish priest said jump, and the lay members asked ‘how high’? are well and truly gone in most countries. The shortage of vocations has ensured that lay people have a significant role to play; without their input, the church would collapse, certainly in the West.
I think questioning gender, for me, helps me be free of orthodoxy that can be a toxic trap and does not allow a flexible dialogue with B/being out of which good can come. Where this has ever encountered a shadow side for me is in having given to much credence to these orthodox assertions that that then poisoned my dialogue. It has also been, under the pressure of not being free to be me yet needing to, doing so in the ways that emerged and were what was offered that were shaped by the images the orthodoxy gave of who i was, and what it would be to rebel and the condensation of doing so in rare moments that expressed a lifetime’s yearning.
Catholicism is universal – yet it is only a portion of the universe that is recognised here, no human can or will define the whole, and when we exclude we usually miss something — and they certainly miss some human understanding of trans processes here.
I know you feel strongly about this Lorraine, but the Vatican document clearly contained this statement: “those promoting discussion of gender identity are being unquestioning and absolutist”. How can those promoting discussion about a topic be labelled in this way? The statement is hypocritical in the most bizarre way. I wasn’t talking about questioning faith, merely this single statement.