Catholics and gender ideology

In this raw, emotionally overwrought moment in our public life, few topics generate more passion than gender ideology and the associated practice of gender “transition.” Several Catholic leaders have tried to address the ideology and the practice calmly, informed by science, philosophy, theology, and pastoral experience.

The most recent is Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of “Toledo in America,” as the Vatican’s Annuario Pontificio designates the Ohio diocese centered on the Glass City.

I’m perhaps a suspect witness in the case of Bishop Thomas, as we’ve been friends for almost thirty years. We met when then-Monsignor Thomas was a Vatican official of the then-Congregation for Bishops and serving as a spiritual director at the North American College, my Roman home when I was preparing Witness to Hope, the first volume of my John Paul II biography. No Philadelphia native of my previous acquaintance more thoroughly falsified the smackdown of Philly as the “City of Brotherly Shove.”

Msgr. Thomas and I often sat together during Evening Prayer at the College, two former choir boys enjoying hymn singing and chant, perhaps recalling the innocent days when some notes (like the murderous high B-flat in Bruckner’s Ecce Sacerdos Magnus) weren’t so difficult to reach. Msgr. Thomas also paved the way for me to meet with his boss, Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, who told me that, when he was administering the oath of secrecy to new members of his congregational staff, he gave them a picture of John Paul II collapsing into the arms of his secretary after being shot on May 13, 1981: a reminder that helping the Church find good bishops is a serious business, as the man chosen might be called to give his life for his flock. In good times and trying times, Msgr. Thomas was always a consummate gentleman, a faithful friend, and a happy, holy priest.

These qualities are fully on display in The Body Reveals the Person: A Catholic Response to the Challenges of Gender Ideology, which Bishop Thomas released in August. This thoughtful, beautifully illustrated, and thoroughly documented text should be read in full—and that can be done in a half-hour or forty-five minutes.

In doing so, parents, ministers of the Gospel, doctors, mental health professionals, teachers, academic administrators, and public officials will meet that precious rarity in American life today: an adult voice that marries conviction to compassion in response to suffering and distress. The character of the Response’s author is well displayed in its opening paragraph:

First and foremost, I wish to express my special pastoral concern for those who suffer from gender confusion. I offer to you, your families and friends, and to all who are concerned with your welfare, the Church’s guidance on the many vexing questions that arise in this difficult area.

Although the guidance that follows is meant to clarify important theological points about the nature of gender, it is intended primarily as pastoral help from the heart of the Church, fundamental for our understanding of and response to the challenges of gender ideology. Just as a good mother loves her children wholeheartedly, our mother Church loves her children with all her heart. She speaks words of comfort to them and tries to relieve as much as possible their heavy burdens. But her guidance would not be truly loving if she failed to speak with utmost honesty, even when that guidance runs contrary to some of the assumptions of our contemporary culture or conflicts with feelings experienced by some who struggle with issues of gender. And so, I humbly ask your sincere openness as I speak to you heart to heart.

In what follows, Bishop Thomas does not hesitate to tell two important truths.

First, gender ideology proposes a false idea of our humanity: one that denies the biblical truth about us, reduces us to mere bundles of morally equal desires, and does serious damage to individuals and society.

Second, gender dysphoria causes real suffering, but there is no clinical evidence that “transitioning” yields long-term mental health benefits.

Those truths are told in love, however, not used as weapons to condemn individuals who need genuine care rather than technological quick fixes that fix nothing and often make matters worse.

The corruptions that gender ideology has wrought in medicine are ably described by America’s most distinguished psychiatrist, Dr. Paul McHugh, in a recent “Beyond Gender” video podcast that nicely complements Bishop Thomas’s excellent Response. Read Bishop Thomas, watch Dr. McHugh, and meet two Catholics, a pastor and a scientist, who are voices of sanity and charity, men of faith and reason of whom the Church can be very proud.

(George Weigel’s column ‘The Catholic Difference’ is syndicated by the Denver Catholic, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Denver.)