Father Francisco “Patxi” Bronchalo of the Diocese of Getafe in Spain shared on X about the emotional wounds he has encountered throughout his pastoral experience in persons who declare themselves “trans.”
The priest began a thread on X on April 3 affirming that “a man who says he’s a woman is not a woman but a man who says he’s a woman,” which “seems obvious” but nevertheless means going against “the ideological trans dogma and makes many people cry to high heaven.”
The priest explained that among people who declare themselves “trans,” he has always found in his pastoral experience that “there are deep wounds that have led to nonacceptance of their biological reality.”
Given this, instead of facing their problems, they are offered an “escape forward” into an ideology “that says that biological reality does not define what a person is but that what is defining is how this person perceives himself.”
Consequently, “a whole new anthropological, moral, and legal construction is proposed to justify the ideology” that leads to teaching children in schools “the 37 different genders that are said to exist,” the priest continued.
Sexual abuse and bullying at school
Bronchalo explained in his detailed thread on X that the wounds he has encountered when as a priest he has had to care for people who don’t identify with their biological nature are of two kinds.
Either there is “sexual, physical, and psychological abuse by a family member that leads them to reject who they are” or there is “bullying at school, rejection by friends for being more shy, sensitive, or withdrawn.”
“There is always something of this: Children broken by very hard life experiences in the most intimate of environments,” the priest emphasized, noting that “the family is a place where the person finds security and affection,” and without it the person is hurt and the damage done “will cause suffering in the future.”
A flag and some hormones
Bronchalo explained that many of these young people are given “a flag and some hormones” as a solution. The flag “makes them identify with a group,” so “at first they feel good,” but then “they begin to enter the entire ideological world that teaches them that everyone hates them.”
Regarding taking opposite-sex hormones, the priest warned that it’s a decision “that can lead to irreversible consequences.” He pointed out that “people talk about trans visibility but visibility is not given to those who regret the process.” However, this can be easily remedied with “a quick Google search.”
“Many discover that when they have done the entire process they still feel bad. Because the wounds are still there,” the priest explained, lamenting that because of this “there are those who fall into drugs to alleviate emotional pain, into unbridled sex, prostitution, in order to feel loved. It’s hard. Their hearts are broken.”
Bronchalo asks himself: “What truly heals wounds?” His response is clear: “Affection and security. True love. What was missing could be given to them. Without escapes or ideologies. Teaching through true human love what the unconditional love that God has for us is.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Pope Francis addressed members of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on Thursday morning, Feb. 8, 2024, to discuss the importance of liturgical reform as a core feature of the broader “renewal of the Church.” /… […]
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey walks across the campus of St. John’s Prep in Danvers, Massachusetts, on April 9, 2024. / Credit: Screenshot of St. John’s Prep Facebook page last visited April 19, 2024
Boston, Mass., Apr 23, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).
Pro-lifers in the Archdiocese of Boston are criticizing Cardinal Seán O’Malley over two recent appearances at Catholic education events by the pro-abortion governor of Massachusetts.
Earlier this month, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat who supports legal and publicly funded abortion and who has taken steps to make abortions easier to obtain, spoke at a fundraiser for The Catholic Schools Foundation, which raises money for Catholic schools in the archdiocese and helps poor students attend.
O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, is the chairman of the board of trustees of the foundation, though he was in Rome at the time of the gala and did not attend it.
Healey also recently visited a Catholic school north of Boston, speaking to students and answering questions.
C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, called Healey’s appearances “a grave scandal.”
“Cardinal O’Malley should be ashamed of himself. Is Maura Healey an inspiring role model for Catholic students?” Doyle said.
Thomas Harvey, chairman of the Massachusetts Alliance to Stop Taxpayer Funded Abortions, called including Healey at the Catholic events “really disgraceful,” and he placed the blame on O’Malley.
“Maura Healey is a huge proponent of killing babies in the womb, in direct defiance of Catholic teaching, and yet here she is being presented to impressionable Catholic students as if she were a Catholic role model,” Harvey told the Register by text. “And the clear message being sent to Catholic students here is that killing babies in the womb is just not that big a deal.”
In June 2004, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a document called “Catholics in Public Life,” which states: “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors, or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”
Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, pointed out that Healey was not an honoree at the gala or during her earlier appearance at the Catholic school.
Since Healey is the governor of the state, Donilon said, Cardinal O’Malley has worked with her “on a number of issues important to Catholics and the wider community,” including public funding for the archdiocese’s charitable work providing “basic needs assistance, job training, child care services, and immigration and refugee assistance to thousands of residents,” as well as building “badly needed affordable housing” and trying “to stem gun violence.”
“At the same time, the cardinal has been a leader in the pro-life movement for over 50 years and his commitment in being a staunch promoter of life is well known and unwavering,” Donilon said.
O’Malley, 79, a Capuchin Franciscan, has frequently attended the March for Life in Washington, D.C., and has spoken at pro-life rallies. Last week, The Boston Globe published a column by O’Malley urging state legislators to oppose a bill that would legalize physician-assisted suicide.
But critics such as Doyle claim that O’Malley during his time as archbishop has seemed to mix easily and uncritically with abortion-supporting Catholic politicians, including the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (whose funeral Mass he celebrated), the late Boston mayor Thomas Menino, former Boston mayor Marty Walsh, and the current governor, Healey, with whom he co-authored a column in The Boston Globe in September 2017 on immigration.
Donilon, O’Malley’s spokesman, addressing Healey’s participation in The Catholic Schools Foundation gala last week, said that “the governor has been a vocal supporter of Catholic education. … Our Catholic schools save cities and towns hundreds of millions of dollars in education costs. Our families benefit from an outstanding education based in an excellent faith-based environment.”
Gov. Maura Healey speaks to students at St. John’s Prep on April 9, 2024. Credit: Screenshot of St. John’s Prep Facebook page last visited on April 9, 2024.
Who is Maura Healey?
Healey, 53, was elected Massachusetts attorney general in 2014 with an endorsement from Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund. She served two terms as attorney general before being elected governor of Massachusetts in November 2022.
As an elected official, Healey has frequently supported public policies that clash with Catholic teachings on life and sexuality.
She has verbally attacked pro-life pregnancy centers, steered state government money to private abortion funds, and, in April 2023, quietly arranged for the flagship campus of the state-run University of Massachusetts to purchase 15,000 doses of abortion pills.
Healey’s administration in June 2023 successfully proposed a curriculum framework for public schools that calls for teaching between third and fifth grades “the differences between biological sex and gender identity” and “how one’s outward behavior and appearance does not define one’s gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Healey appeared Thursday, April 11, at the annual gala of The Catholic Schools Foundation at a hotel in Boston.
“So I didn’t have the benefit of going to Catholic school,” Healey said, according to a text of her remarks provided by a spokesman. “My mom went to Catholic school, and my nephew goes to Catholic school; we have priest[s] at the dinner table every Sunday. But I do know, both having been your attorney general and now as your governor, what your work means. And I can see that experience firsthand.”
She also said she wants to find ways “to partner” with the foundation “in the important work that you [are] doing.”
“And I want you to know that, as governor, I value our vibrant mix of education, our public schools, our private schools, and our religious schools,” Healey said.
Two days earlier, on Tuesday, April 9, Healey spent about 50 minutes with a group of 120 students at St. John’s Preparatory High School, a Catholic boys’ school founded by the Xaverian Brothers in Danvers, about 18 miles northeast of Boston, according to a description of the visit published on the school’s website. The school is in the Archdiocese of Boston, though it is not run by the archdiocese.
Healey had never visited the school before, “but it was quickly clear her personal values are closely aligned with those of the Xaverian Brothers,” the school’s write-up states.
Healey emphasized leadership and empathy during her remarks. The governor also told the students that while she believes in civil discourse, “there are some basic values that have kept our society intact,” and she told students they should “call out hate when you see it.”
“We can have differences of opinion on things,” Healey said, according to the school’s write-up, “but, to me, equality has got to abide. Respect for the dignity and worth of each person is something I call on people to really adhere to.”
Robert Joyce, a lawyer and member of the board of the Pro-Life Legal Defense Fund, which provides legal representation for pro-lifers, said that St. John’s Prep last fall turned down an offer he made to provide a pro-life assembly for students featuring a canon lawyer, a physician, and a vocations director. (The head of school, Edward Hardiman, did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.)
Joyce called Healey’s recent appearances at the gala and at the school “abominations for Catholic education.”
“They send the clear message to Catholic students and parents that critical, fundamental precepts of the Catholic faith are not all that important. In simple terms, they declare that protection of innocent unborn life and the defense of traditional marriage are negotiable with these Catholic educators,” Joyce indicated.
Healey is also a featured speaker at the annual Spring Celebration of Catholic Charities Boston scheduled for Wednesday, May 29, at the Boston Harbor Hotel in Boston. O’Malley is expected to receive an award at the event for his work in welcoming immigrants.
Healey and the Catholic Church
Healey does not often talk about religion in public, but she occasionally identifies herself as a Catholic.
In October 2018, when she was state attorney general, she led off a brief column in The Boston Globe with the words: “As a member of law enforcement and as a Catholic …”
In April 2022, when Healey criticized Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester for calling for a Catholic school to take down a rainbow flag, she added, according to MassLive.com: “And I speak as a Catholic …”
In October 2022, during a debate while she was running for governor, Healey used a Catholic reference while defending herself from a claim by her Republican opponent that a bill she had supported effectively legalized infanticide, as the National Catholic Register subsequently reported. “You know, my mom goes to Mass every morning,” Healey said.
Healey is widely thought of as a potential candidate for other offices. She would be an obvious Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts if either of the two incumbents (both in their 70s) leaves office.
Additionally, just hours before her appearance at The Catholic Schools Foundation gala, Healey participated in an event at Northeastern University in Boston honoring former Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis. The moderator floated Healey as a potential future candidate for president of the United States, to applause from the audience.
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.
Peter Kilpatrick is formally installed as the 16th president of the Catholic University of America at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 11, 2022. / Credit: Patrick G. Ryan, Catholic Uni… […]
33 Comments
I expect he is 100% correct.
Affection, security, and love are the start. And prayer, especially meditation. That is what enables the person to start loving themselves and repenting of their sins, loving their abusers and forgiving them, accepting the vast quantities and varied kinds of suffering they have and healing from it, and believing the truth about God’s love for them.
I don’t think the sex, drugs, and such are to make themselves feel loved. That’s to distract just a bit from the pain of believing you aren’t.
Sin harms no one so much as the person who commits it. It is an act of self-hatred to sin, and an act of self-love to repent.
If you are trying to make someone feel good, calling them to repentance might not achieve that, particularly if you’re bad at communicating how harmful it is to them, how much sin destroys, in the sinner, the joy and peace God means us to have. But anyone who has walked from self-hatred to properly ordered self-love knows that repentance is an essential part of that… so essential that avoidance of repentance will at some point become an obstacle to healing (similarly with forgiveness).
In case it wasn’t clear, this is a process, and one to be done gently, patiently, kindly, and charitably (i.e., loving the person for love of God), and according to God’s timing and not our own.
Failure to face reality is never considered normal, but rather a sign of weakness somewhere. One truth that we can always rely on is that God loves His creation = all of it, and if the human ones screw up, they must always be sorry and make atonement to their Creator – some sort of atonement, to keep things in proper order. Does that make sense?
To the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus noted the fault zones of her life. He offered her living water while pointing out her sin. Jesus admonished the woman caught in adultery to sin no more. Jesus came to call “sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32) Only after Zaccheus the tax collector determined to amend his cheating mistakes, only then did Jesus proclaim his salvation.
The Gospel is filled with such examples. Jesus did not come to call sinners who believe they are already righteous. He did not come to call sinners who think they are already nice, good, or okay. Jesus advised: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48).
We are all sinners, but a sinner who refuses or resents another recognizing his sins is neither a humble nor a repentant sinner. A non-repentant sinner is not able to recognize or appreciate let alone receive benefit or salvation from Christ’s living water.
Hebrews 10:5 has Jesus commenting on “a body you have prepared for me.” Just as Jesus offered His body, pure and undefiled to God Our Father, every Christian is to work toward doing the same.
Sin works against God. We must not become complacent about sin in our lives or in those we claim to love.
With a suicide rate which I understand approaches 50%, its clear that Trans people have a significant mental illness. Body dysmorphia at the very least. And “transitioning” does not greatly lower that statistic. They can declare themselves dragons if they want to, but forcing other people to call them that will change nothing at all. The govt needs to stop affirming transgenderism as something normal.
Actually, the suicide rate is no different and has remained static over the years according to APA as stated in Dr. Kevin Vost, PSY.D. I agree that the LGBTQ+ community is using flawed rhetoric to push acceptance of the ideological trans dogma in an effort to normalize there prefer abnormal sexual behaviors. That does not give society the excuse to be demeaning but to understand that the LGBTQ+ people are suffering from deep mental defect. In the same, the church needs to continue to also profess that any deviant sexual activity in a sin and continue to try to save the sinner. It is also worth noting that it is not just the LGBTQ+ people that take pare in sinful lust activity that is not in accordance with natural law.
A Danish study quoted by CNN shows an elevated rate as much as 40% higher than the general population. Not remotely the same as the general population.
And this study from the National Institute of health showing the rates from various countries as 32 to 50% of the trans population.These are not the only studies showing elevated rates of suicide among Trans. Saying it’s no different from the population at large is untrue propaganda.
It is not news to me but I am very glad to read the priest’s account of that problem. The available online data shows a disproportionately high percentage of abused (mostly in their families) among those who seek hormonal “therapy” and surgeries. It makes perfect sense to me: a teen whom his family makes feel ugly and shameful, unloved and rejected is unable to understand the real reason for his desperation precisely because it is his family and thus a norm. There is thus something wrong with him, not with his family. Hence, he believes he is “ugly and unacceptable” indeed. I perceive those drastic surgeries to be an attempt TO BECOME another person who will be loved and accepted. The problem is that since a teen has learnt not to love himself, there is practically no chance that he will love himself after he “remade” himself. If he will love himself, it will be only until the novelty wears off.
Being interviewed, many of those teenagers exhibit the symptoms of severe anxiety, depression, bulimia, anorexia and even borderline personality disorder (which is a result of an extreme early trauma) – all that apart from being just normally miserable as most teens are re: their changing bodies. I was astonished to discover that such people are given “a green light” towards mutilation after just one or maximum two appointments with a psychologist. It is a huge crime.
In a nutshell, it is a denial of the reality of a suffering soul, a kind of plastic surgery to remove wrinkles. Superficial and pathetic beyond measure.
That’s what I’ve seen, too. For a long time, I thought that all sin was, underneath everything, a kind of satanic defiance of God, with the talk about human weakness merely being our attempts to excuse our actions. The few people I have really gotten to know who are LGBTQ are, however, deeply broken, and their facade of being “gay” in the old-fashioned sense masks a very profound sadness. They are very badly served by those who claim to represent them.
Sadly, these realities are all almost self-evident, an advanced form of the same lack of self-worth syndrome that drives homosexuality, but there is another factor. I viewed a PBS documentary a few years ago showing a pyschologist evaluating a video study of a boy in front of his parents trying to convince them he was trans and should get a surgery immediately. On what basis? Well the boy seemed to be more attached to the family dog than anyone else in the household “proving” that he had a strong “maternal nurturing” side, which proved, to the psychologist, that he really is “a girl in a boys body”. This was good enough for the well-educated, trendy parents who agreed with the “expert.” There is no limit to the stupidity embraced by those trying to prove their superior intelligence.
Sadly, this is beginning to shed light on the parents in places like Canaan and Carthage who willingly gave up their children to be sacrificed to demons.
Yes. Such parents are pagans. They believe the way to salvation, truth, and life lies in the deadly sacrificial offering of their offspring to lifelong psychological and bodily mutilation.
You are being generous to the motives of these pagan parents. The advantages they seek, now as they did then, are usually much less than “salvation, truth, and life”.
How sad, that love for an animal/pet could be used to label someone homosexual or trans. My father grew up on a farm, and when one of the dairy cattle died, his family mourned (all the cows had names and personalities!). My dad loved his cats, and my mother told me once (when they were older) that she found him sobbing and when she asked why, he sobbed, “My cat got run over!” My brother is the same way–loves his cats and mourns when they die. God gave Adam the job of caring for the animals in the Garden of Eden! AND…it is a stereotype to think that all gay men love animals–some do…and some definitely do NOT!–just like straight people have different preferences when it comes to animals.
Honestly, it’s the sort of thing that could only be done by someone with very limited familiarity with real boys and men … or by someone who had no interest in the truth.
My goodness. I have every reason to believe this happened, and that your account is accurate. Can you give some identifying information about the show: Name of the show, when it aired, etc.? I could try to look it up, but as you know, there’s a lot of this sort of detritus on PBS, and it would take a lot of sifting to find the piece you reference.
First, I’m in total agreement with all who expressed sentiments about the appropriateness of men having compassion for the innocent creatures. I do too. My point in my anecdote was to note the elitist vanity of an “expert” doing harm from a ridiculous observation. Human vanity increases as religious practice declines.
Regarding the broadcast, I wish I could help more. It’s based on a memory of a half-watched program on a PBS special, which I did not view to the end once my disgust crossed my blood pressure threshold. I vaguely remember it was about four or five years ago, maybe during what they call “pride month” in June, and it was when trans issues were just gaining momentum. I live in NYC, so the local network is WNET, generally more liberal. I believe they might archive their old broadcast schedules.
Anyone with gender dysphoria has deep psychological wounds, which they sadly often transform into physical wounds by chopping off healthy body parts. You can’t treat a software problem with a hardware solution.
The basic salve for these disorders – whether it’s of the trans variety or the homosexual kind is…Truth. You never help anyone by lying to them. Of course, Truth must be always leavened with Love.
Sexual mutilation of the human body is one of the more diabolic manifestations of evil, largely imposed on the young and vulnerable by monsters with medical and psychiatric degrees. And government under this administration deem it compassionate medical care. Assume the authority to seize children from parents. Proclaim the idolatrous freedom of diversity. A cauldron awaits them at Judgment.
Indeed mrscracker. In our day the target for the worst sins are children. It’s difficult not to be angered and yet retain focus on praying for conversions. Although it was Christ who referred to the millstone, that’s what he desires of us. I had to look up Calvin Robinson and then remind myself of the Old Catholics in Britain. They’re, or rather perceive themselves as more Catholic than the Pope.
There is more than a little irony that many of the same people who say they “follow the science” and disbelieve religious claims are still willing to claim that a female soul is somehow trapped in a male body (or vice versa).
I have always been concerned with the spiritual, mental and physical health of transgender teens. Can we really “recover” them with our current interventions? Are the parents and doctors vocal? I ask…
Are we lovingly and properly labeling adolescent transgenders? Can they be truly included in the LGBQ ideology? How can they be identified to apply “counciling”? And, what is the success/failure rate afer intervention is completed?
I am still conflated on the drastic efforts to “make them whole”. I ask, how would an otherwise healthy teen subject themselves to major surgery and toxic hormone substances with urgency? Were they born that way?
Perhaps we could begin helping them by choosing not use Newspeak terminology like “transgender teens.” Verbal engineering precedes every social delusion.
The few people with gender dysphoria I have heard of with a discernible cause involved growing up either with their opposite-sex siblings being showered with affection and attention while they were ignored, or with a very unstable and abusive home, or having a parent (or 2) that really wanted a transgender child for the bragging rights and therefore pressured them into it at an early age. The exceptions to that are where the abuse/brainwashing was done at school instead of at home.
I suspect that some form of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or neglect will account for all or nearly all with gender dysphoria. Recovering from that requires recognizing the abuse and neglect and lies as such, rejecting the lies and evil, forgiving the perpetrators, recovering and healing, and then repeating that process as the layers get peeled back, as many times as it takes.
Deep wounds.
Who would have expected otherwise?
Mental illness of either biological or sociological origin is treated through psychological therapy and hopefully with pastoral care. That does not include affirmation to any degree of the disorder. It is about correcting the disorder.
The victims of ‘trans’ ‘man-boy-lover’ couples have deep wounds as well. A friend of mine had a brother raped by a ‘trans’ ‘man-boy-lover’ Boy scout leader. Six of the twelve boys molested committed suicide before adulthood. Three boys survived to adulthood but were total emotional disasters and could not function in life to get jobs, married or live away from caretakers. The other three seemed to have normal lives from the outside, but no one knows for sure what kind of emotional burden they carry.
Pope Francis, “Asked about the synod assembly’s discussion of homosexuality, Pope Francis said: “When I say ‘everyone, everyone, everyone,’ [I’m speaking about] people. The Church receives people. Everyone. And it does not ask how you are. Then, inside, everyone grows, but from a Christian belonging.”
“German Bishop Must Face Vatican Investigation, Abuse Council Demands
“we still perceive in the actions of Bishop Bode a more perpetrator-oriented than victim-oriented attitude,” the victims’ advisory council said on Monday.”
“Several prominent German prelates have been accused of mishandling cases of sexual abuse. They include Synodal Way initiator Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Synodal Way president Bishop Georg Bätzing — the successor to Marx as president of the bishops’ conference — and Hamburg’s Archbishop Heße. All of them have so far remained in office.”
‘Mankind will not have peace untill it turns WITH TRUST to My mercy ‘ -https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/message-mercy-diary-st-faustina –
Words of our Lord to the St., in relation of need to celebrate The Feast of Mercy and related devotion . Providential too that the ministry is by the Marians of The Immaculate Concecption . Hatred / contempt / envy about the body – said to have been at root of the rebellion of the fallen angels , whose work is manifest amidst us, as all the evils against life and sanctity of marriage etc :, which likely add to the wounds in other realms .
Lord as The Mercy of The Father , The Mother as the Mercy of The Lord, thus The Church too as mercy manifest – reason the Holy Father has seen the need for much tenderness and compassion in our times , so that the wounded are helped to overcome the deeply ingrained sense of unworthiness as lack of trust .
The role of The Mother, to help bring that trust, in loving her – thus loving the Holy Trinity and all in Them , by having such an intention in daily life, renewing same often through the day, to thus grow in the exchange of love , to help trust that one is loved by her, thus able to love oneself ( and others ) with her love !
Invoking the mystical ‘tears of blood ‘ that manifest the grieving of the Holy Spirit as sins of pride and presumption, its rebellions,slavery under powers of evil – those tears to be invoked often unto all such wounds of oneself and others , to be set free from the bitterness, despair and all .
The threats by secular powers against explicit mention of the nature of these issues could be somewhat of a blessing in disguise – The Church can bring all these areas – exorcism ministry included , to ‘walk together ‘ -to invite all the wounded which any more would be all families , to have the ‘daily bread ‘ – for prevention as well as remedy . FIAT !
Hey, all you backwardist complainers above. It’s not about natural law, or even common sense or evidence; it’s about marketable flim-flam:
In the 1980s and 90s clericalists, tutored by “experts” in psychiatry, believed that so-called pedophiles could be harmonized into a cure by a geographic fix—musical chairs within the diocese (and 85% were homosexuals, the John Jay Report, 2002);
Now, today, medical experts sing their same ol’ tune—this time harmonizing another sexually related distress, with a hormone fix and now physiological mutilation (case studies point instead to persistent and deeper wounds).
But, hey, Cardinal Fernandez is poised to expose gender theory—but why not synod theory? The paradigm shift away from the “real” Council of the Documents to the musical chairs of first the “virtual” council, and then synodal roundtables, then the experts, and now the study groups!
With synod theory, adults in the room have exposed the marketing and word-game fix in the capstone Fiducia Supplicans—all of the (synodal!) Eastern Orthodox Churches and, in the West, Hungary, Poland, Kazakhstan, Peru, all of continental Africa, and parts of Argentina, France, Spain, and so on, including the former Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
And to think that synods did work well in the past, and might again. Why is that? But, hey, no “backwardist” glances; ever forward!
I expect he is 100% correct.
Affection, security, and love are the start. And prayer, especially meditation. That is what enables the person to start loving themselves and repenting of their sins, loving their abusers and forgiving them, accepting the vast quantities and varied kinds of suffering they have and healing from it, and believing the truth about God’s love for them.
I don’t think the sex, drugs, and such are to make themselves feel loved. That’s to distract just a bit from the pain of believing you aren’t.
Offering LOVE then “repenting of their sins”? That seems to be an indictment when they least need it.
Sin harms no one so much as the person who commits it. It is an act of self-hatred to sin, and an act of self-love to repent.
If you are trying to make someone feel good, calling them to repentance might not achieve that, particularly if you’re bad at communicating how harmful it is to them, how much sin destroys, in the sinner, the joy and peace God means us to have. But anyone who has walked from self-hatred to properly ordered self-love knows that repentance is an essential part of that… so essential that avoidance of repentance will at some point become an obstacle to healing (similarly with forgiveness).
In case it wasn’t clear, this is a process, and one to be done gently, patiently, kindly, and charitably (i.e., loving the person for love of God), and according to God’s timing and not our own.
Failure to face reality is never considered normal, but rather a sign of weakness somewhere. One truth that we can always rely on is that God loves His creation = all of it, and if the human ones screw up, they must always be sorry and make atonement to their Creator – some sort of atonement, to keep things in proper order. Does that make sense?
To the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus noted the fault zones of her life. He offered her living water while pointing out her sin. Jesus admonished the woman caught in adultery to sin no more. Jesus came to call “sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32) Only after Zaccheus the tax collector determined to amend his cheating mistakes, only then did Jesus proclaim his salvation.
The Gospel is filled with such examples. Jesus did not come to call sinners who believe they are already righteous. He did not come to call sinners who think they are already nice, good, or okay. Jesus advised: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48).
We are all sinners, but a sinner who refuses or resents another recognizing his sins is neither a humble nor a repentant sinner. A non-repentant sinner is not able to recognize or appreciate let alone receive benefit or salvation from Christ’s living water.
Hebrews 10:5 has Jesus commenting on “a body you have prepared for me.” Just as Jesus offered His body, pure and undefiled to God Our Father, every Christian is to work toward doing the same.
Sin works against God. We must not become complacent about sin in our lives or in those we claim to love.
With a suicide rate which I understand approaches 50%, its clear that Trans people have a significant mental illness. Body dysmorphia at the very least. And “transitioning” does not greatly lower that statistic. They can declare themselves dragons if they want to, but forcing other people to call them that will change nothing at all. The govt needs to stop affirming transgenderism as something normal.
Actually, the suicide rate is no different and has remained static over the years according to APA as stated in Dr. Kevin Vost, PSY.D. I agree that the LGBTQ+ community is using flawed rhetoric to push acceptance of the ideological trans dogma in an effort to normalize there prefer abnormal sexual behaviors. That does not give society the excuse to be demeaning but to understand that the LGBTQ+ people are suffering from deep mental defect. In the same, the church needs to continue to also profess that any deviant sexual activity in a sin and continue to try to save the sinner. It is also worth noting that it is not just the LGBTQ+ people that take pare in sinful lust activity that is not in accordance with natural law.
A Danish study quoted by CNN shows an elevated rate as much as 40% higher than the general population. Not remotely the same as the general population.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/28/health/transgender-suicide-risk/index.html
And this study from the National Institute of health showing the rates from various countries as 32 to 50% of the trans population.These are not the only studies showing elevated rates of suicide among Trans. Saying it’s no different from the population at large is untrue propaganda.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5178031/
“The govt needs to stop affirming transgenderism as something normal.”
Well said.
It is not news to me but I am very glad to read the priest’s account of that problem. The available online data shows a disproportionately high percentage of abused (mostly in their families) among those who seek hormonal “therapy” and surgeries. It makes perfect sense to me: a teen whom his family makes feel ugly and shameful, unloved and rejected is unable to understand the real reason for his desperation precisely because it is his family and thus a norm. There is thus something wrong with him, not with his family. Hence, he believes he is “ugly and unacceptable” indeed. I perceive those drastic surgeries to be an attempt TO BECOME another person who will be loved and accepted. The problem is that since a teen has learnt not to love himself, there is practically no chance that he will love himself after he “remade” himself. If he will love himself, it will be only until the novelty wears off.
Being interviewed, many of those teenagers exhibit the symptoms of severe anxiety, depression, bulimia, anorexia and even borderline personality disorder (which is a result of an extreme early trauma) – all that apart from being just normally miserable as most teens are re: their changing bodies. I was astonished to discover that such people are given “a green light” towards mutilation after just one or maximum two appointments with a psychologist. It is a huge crime.
In a nutshell, it is a denial of the reality of a suffering soul, a kind of plastic surgery to remove wrinkles. Superficial and pathetic beyond measure.
That’s what I’ve seen, too. For a long time, I thought that all sin was, underneath everything, a kind of satanic defiance of God, with the talk about human weakness merely being our attempts to excuse our actions. The few people I have really gotten to know who are LGBTQ are, however, deeply broken, and their facade of being “gay” in the old-fashioned sense masks a very profound sadness. They are very badly served by those who claim to represent them.
Sadly, these realities are all almost self-evident, an advanced form of the same lack of self-worth syndrome that drives homosexuality, but there is another factor. I viewed a PBS documentary a few years ago showing a pyschologist evaluating a video study of a boy in front of his parents trying to convince them he was trans and should get a surgery immediately. On what basis? Well the boy seemed to be more attached to the family dog than anyone else in the household “proving” that he had a strong “maternal nurturing” side, which proved, to the psychologist, that he really is “a girl in a boys body”. This was good enough for the well-educated, trendy parents who agreed with the “expert.” There is no limit to the stupidity embraced by those trying to prove their superior intelligence.
Wow.
Sadly, this is beginning to shed light on the parents in places like Canaan and Carthage who willingly gave up their children to be sacrificed to demons.
Yes. Such parents are pagans. They believe the way to salvation, truth, and life lies in the deadly sacrificial offering of their offspring to lifelong psychological and bodily mutilation.
You are being generous to the motives of these pagan parents. The advantages they seek, now as they did then, are usually much less than “salvation, truth, and life”.
How sad, that love for an animal/pet could be used to label someone homosexual or trans. My father grew up on a farm, and when one of the dairy cattle died, his family mourned (all the cows had names and personalities!). My dad loved his cats, and my mother told me once (when they were older) that she found him sobbing and when she asked why, he sobbed, “My cat got run over!” My brother is the same way–loves his cats and mourns when they die. God gave Adam the job of caring for the animals in the Garden of Eden! AND…it is a stereotype to think that all gay men love animals–some do…and some definitely do NOT!–just like straight people have different preferences when it comes to animals.
Honestly, it’s the sort of thing that could only be done by someone with very limited familiarity with real boys and men … or by someone who had no interest in the truth.
My goodness. I have every reason to believe this happened, and that your account is accurate. Can you give some identifying information about the show: Name of the show, when it aired, etc.? I could try to look it up, but as you know, there’s a lot of this sort of detritus on PBS, and it would take a lot of sifting to find the piece you reference.
First, I’m in total agreement with all who expressed sentiments about the appropriateness of men having compassion for the innocent creatures. I do too. My point in my anecdote was to note the elitist vanity of an “expert” doing harm from a ridiculous observation. Human vanity increases as religious practice declines.
Regarding the broadcast, I wish I could help more. It’s based on a memory of a half-watched program on a PBS special, which I did not view to the end once my disgust crossed my blood pressure threshold. I vaguely remember it was about four or five years ago, maybe during what they call “pride month” in June, and it was when trans issues were just gaining momentum. I live in NYC, so the local network is WNET, generally more liberal. I believe they might archive their old broadcast schedules.
Anyone with gender dysphoria has deep psychological wounds, which they sadly often transform into physical wounds by chopping off healthy body parts. You can’t treat a software problem with a hardware solution.
You *really* can’t solve a software problem by taking a sledgehammer to the hardware.
The basic salve for these disorders – whether it’s of the trans variety or the homosexual kind is…Truth. You never help anyone by lying to them. Of course, Truth must be always leavened with Love.
Sexual mutilation of the human body is one of the more diabolic manifestations of evil, largely imposed on the young and vulnerable by monsters with medical and psychiatric degrees. And government under this administration deem it compassionate medical care. Assume the authority to seize children from parents. Proclaim the idolatrous freedom of diversity. A cauldron awaits them at Judgment.
I heard Calvin Robinson describe those who prey on the young in these ways as “Millstone People.”
Indeed mrscracker. In our day the target for the worst sins are children. It’s difficult not to be angered and yet retain focus on praying for conversions. Although it was Christ who referred to the millstone, that’s what he desires of us. I had to look up Calvin Robinson and then remind myself of the Old Catholics in Britain. They’re, or rather perceive themselves as more Catholic than the Pope.
There is more than a little irony that many of the same people who say they “follow the science” and disbelieve religious claims are still willing to claim that a female soul is somehow trapped in a male body (or vice versa).
I have always been concerned with the spiritual, mental and physical health of transgender teens. Can we really “recover” them with our current interventions? Are the parents and doctors vocal? I ask…
Are we lovingly and properly labeling adolescent transgenders? Can they be truly included in the LGBQ ideology? How can they be identified to apply “counciling”? And, what is the success/failure rate afer intervention is completed?
I am still conflated on the drastic efforts to “make them whole”. I ask, how would an otherwise healthy teen subject themselves to major surgery and toxic hormone substances with urgency? Were they born that way?
We must ask for Jesus’ guidance.
Perhaps we could begin helping them by choosing not use Newspeak terminology like “transgender teens.” Verbal engineering precedes every social delusion.
The few people with gender dysphoria I have heard of with a discernible cause involved growing up either with their opposite-sex siblings being showered with affection and attention while they were ignored, or with a very unstable and abusive home, or having a parent (or 2) that really wanted a transgender child for the bragging rights and therefore pressured them into it at an early age. The exceptions to that are where the abuse/brainwashing was done at school instead of at home.
I suspect that some form of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or neglect will account for all or nearly all with gender dysphoria. Recovering from that requires recognizing the abuse and neglect and lies as such, rejecting the lies and evil, forgiving the perpetrators, recovering and healing, and then repeating that process as the layers get peeled back, as many times as it takes.
Deep wounds.
Who would have expected otherwise?
Mental illness of either biological or sociological origin is treated through psychological therapy and hopefully with pastoral care. That does not include affirmation to any degree of the disorder. It is about correcting the disorder.
The victims of ‘trans’ ‘man-boy-lover’ couples have deep wounds as well. A friend of mine had a brother raped by a ‘trans’ ‘man-boy-lover’ Boy scout leader. Six of the twelve boys molested committed suicide before adulthood. Three boys survived to adulthood but were total emotional disasters and could not function in life to get jobs, married or live away from caretakers. The other three seemed to have normal lives from the outside, but no one knows for sure what kind of emotional burden they carry.
Pope Francis, “Asked about the synod assembly’s discussion of homosexuality, Pope Francis said: “When I say ‘everyone, everyone, everyone,’ [I’m speaking about] people. The Church receives people. Everyone. And it does not ask how you are. Then, inside, everyone grows, but from a Christian belonging.”
“One central critique: that the Pope’s focus was not on same-sex unions, but instead on same-sex-attracted persons who may be in some kind of same-sex relationship.”
https://www.ncregister.com/news/pope-s-directive-on-same-sex-blessings-emphasizes-persons-not-unions-theologians-say?
“German Bishop Must Face Vatican Investigation, Abuse Council Demands
“we still perceive in the actions of Bishop Bode a more perpetrator-oriented than victim-oriented attitude,” the victims’ advisory council said on Monday.”
“Several prominent German prelates have been accused of mishandling cases of sexual abuse. They include Synodal Way initiator Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Synodal Way president Bishop Georg Bätzing — the successor to Marx as president of the bishops’ conference — and Hamburg’s Archbishop Heße. All of them have so far remained in office.”
https://www.ncregister.com/cna/german-bishop-must-face-vatican-investigation-abuse-council-demands?
‘Mankind will not have peace untill it turns WITH TRUST to My mercy ‘ -https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/message-mercy-diary-st-faustina –
Words of our Lord to the St., in relation of need to celebrate The Feast of Mercy and related devotion . Providential too that the ministry is by the Marians of The Immaculate Concecption . Hatred / contempt / envy about the body – said to have been at root of the rebellion of the fallen angels , whose work is manifest amidst us, as all the evils against life and sanctity of marriage etc :, which likely add to the wounds in other realms .
Lord as The Mercy of The Father , The Mother as the Mercy of The Lord, thus The Church too as mercy manifest – reason the Holy Father has seen the need for much tenderness and compassion in our times , so that the wounded are helped to overcome the deeply ingrained sense of unworthiness as lack of trust .
The role of The Mother, to help bring that trust, in loving her – thus loving the Holy Trinity and all in Them , by having such an intention in daily life, renewing same often through the day, to thus grow in the exchange of love , to help trust that one is loved by her, thus able to love oneself ( and others ) with her love !
One such publication that can be helpful –
https://benedictinesofdivinewill.org/uploads/3/4/3/2/34324596/mary_in_dw.pdf
Invoking the mystical ‘tears of blood ‘ that manifest the grieving of the Holy Spirit as sins of pride and presumption, its rebellions,slavery under powers of evil – those tears to be invoked often unto all such wounds of oneself and others , to be set free from the bitterness, despair and all .
The threats by secular powers against explicit mention of the nature of these issues could be somewhat of a blessing in disguise – The Church can bring all these areas – exorcism ministry included , to ‘walk together ‘ -to invite all the wounded which any more would be all families , to have the ‘daily bread ‘ – for prevention as well as remedy . FIAT !
Hey, all you backwardist complainers above. It’s not about natural law, or even common sense or evidence; it’s about marketable flim-flam:
In the 1980s and 90s clericalists, tutored by “experts” in psychiatry, believed that so-called pedophiles could be harmonized into a cure by a geographic fix—musical chairs within the diocese (and 85% were homosexuals, the John Jay Report, 2002);
Now, today, medical experts sing their same ol’ tune—this time harmonizing another sexually related distress, with a hormone fix and now physiological mutilation (case studies point instead to persistent and deeper wounds).
But, hey, Cardinal Fernandez is poised to expose gender theory—but why not synod theory? The paradigm shift away from the “real” Council of the Documents to the musical chairs of first the “virtual” council, and then synodal roundtables, then the experts, and now the study groups!
With synod theory, adults in the room have exposed the marketing and word-game fix in the capstone Fiducia Supplicans—all of the (synodal!) Eastern Orthodox Churches and, in the West, Hungary, Poland, Kazakhstan, Peru, all of continental Africa, and parts of Argentina, France, Spain, and so on, including the former Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
And to think that synods did work well in the past, and might again. Why is that? But, hey, no “backwardist” glances; ever forward!