Gender Ideology and Pastoral Practice: A Handbook for Catholic Clergy, Counselors, Ministerial Leaders: Preface

by Theresa Farnan, Susan Selner-Wright, Robert L. Fastiggi

[This descriptive and informative preface to Gender Ideology and Pastoral Practice is reproduced from the book except for footnotes. This important book can be purchased through Enroute Books and Media.]

Editor’s Preface to Gender Ideology and Pastoral Practice

What is a gender transition?

What does the Church teach on this issue?

How should we respond when a school child tells us he or she is “non-binary”?

What is the appropriate way for the Church to help and support families when their children say they are “transgender”?

How do we navigate sacraments and pastoral care?

How did we get here?

These are some of the questions that the editors of this volume and many of the contributors to it have been fielding for over a decade as we have worked with dioceses, parishes, and families. Most of us have noticed a dramatic shift—ten years ago this issue was largely theoretical to Catholics—now, however, in most Catholic parishes in North America and Western Europe, there are many families or individual Catholics who have family members who have rejected their sexual identity in favor of a newfound, desired gender identity such as identifying as transgender or non-binary. “Gradually, then Suddenly” is perhaps the most succinct way to describe how transgender ideology came to be ascendent in elite culture—becoming a dominant force in politics, media, schools, and certain sectors of the medical community. For decades, elite cultural and political activists chipped away at the culture’s understanding of sex and marriage, seeking to present “decide for yourself” sexual morality and even “decide for yourself” identity as authentic expressions of human autonomy while working to expand sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) rights to everyone, including children. The fairly recent redefinition of marriage was arguably the tipping point at which these formerly fringe ideas became dominant in Western culture, and were pushed relentlessly into schools, youth culture, and politics with evangelical zeal. The result: an epidemic of young persons who reject their sexual identity and seek to craft new identities by altering their bodies through medical or surgical means and seek social recognition and participation that affirm their desired identity, rather than their true sexual identity.

Most Catholics working in pastoral care were taken aback by the speed and scope of the embrace of transgender ideology by youth. They have been deeply affected by the pain they have witnessed—families that have been torn apart as a beloved son or daughter has rejected family members in favor of a chosen identity. They have watched with concern and alarm as young persons in their parish have embarked on a journey of psycho-social, medical, and surgical interventions that endanger their mental and physical health, as the media and secular culture cheer on these destructive decisions. They have encountered children and adults in religious education or formation programs whose understanding of the human person has been shaped by an anti-Christian, anti-realist philosophy that views the person in terms of desire and will, forsaking the unity of body and soul in favor of viewing the body as a malleable tool for projecting a desired identity.

For proclaiming truths about the person that were until recently widely held in Western culture by Christians and non-Christians alike, Catholic pastoral workers are now cast as transphobic bigots and are threatened with legal and financial sanctions for failure to conform to the dominant ideology. Nevertheless, Catholic pastoral workers persist in their love and concern for the vulnerable persons led astray by this ideology, undaunted in their desire to assist parents who, so often, are marginalized for expressing concern about the harm of these interventions, and undaunted in their conviction that human flourishing is only found by living in accord with truth about the person as a unity of body and soul, embodied as male or female from the moment of conception.

These chapters have been collected to assist Catholics doing pastoral work and ministering to children and families caught up in this destructive ideology. In seeking to provide chapters that will be most helpful, we have chosen to focus on responding to the questions that we hear most often from people in parishes. For this reason, we did not include chapters on the philosophical background of gender ideology and its connections with various feminist thinkers or with postmodernist ideologies. We also have limited the scope of these chapters to gender ideology and the transgender movement, rather than addressing the issue of same-sex attraction, which, despite certain areas of shared concerns, is a very different phenomenon. We think it is important not to follow the lead of activists who insist on conflating homosexuality and transgenderism, as the ubiquitous acronyms LGBT and now LGBTQ so aptly demonstrate. Our concern instead has been to think through the issues that arise in a parish or parochial school setting when someone asserts a “gender identity” that does not align with his or her bodily sex. What do people at all levels, from the school to the parish to the diocesan chancery, need to be aware of so that they may respond in ways that are authentically loving and cohere with the teachings of the Catholic Church? What do pastors and other pastoral workers need to know in order to envision concrete responses to situations that, if they have not already arisen, will be arising shortly?

One of our greatest challenges as editors has been language. The great Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper describes a twofold purpose of language. First, he says, “words convey reality. We speak in order to name and identify something that is real…” Second, we speak in order to name and identify something that is real for someone else, to communicate what we understand reality to be to another person. Pieper notes that when language is “disconnected from the roots of truth, in fact pursues some ulterior motives,…it invariably turns into an instrument of power.” This insight is key to understanding the “language wars” that surround the imposition of gender ideology. As legal scholar Jane Adolphe describes in chapter 6, from the 1990’s on the word “gender” was used as part of an effort to smuggle LGBT and later SOGI rights into international agreements by stipulating that gender is a social construct. In fact, until the 1950’s the word “gender” was used to refer to grammatical constructions of nouns, rather than to indicate anything about the person. Popularized both by psychologists who were working with cross-sex identifying populations and by feminists who used the term “gender” to drive home their assertion that sexual difference was socially constructed, the word crept into common public discourse as a substitute for the word “sex.” For decades, most people assumed that gender was merely a synonym for sex.

However, as gender ideology proliferated and schools, health care, and the media popularized the idea of “gender identity” as something that could conflict with a person’s natal sex, the concept of “gender” increasingly was disconnected from sex. Now, in fact, in some recent court decisions sex has been subsumed into gender identity. In a recent decision from Australia, for example, a judge ruled that because a man changed his gender identity marker to female on legal documents, that meant that in the eyes of the court that man was indeed female (in other words, biologically female), and entitled to all rights, privileges, and protections of those who were born female. In many legal jurisdictions, “gender” is now always taken to include “gender identity,” which renders the concept of “gender” utterly disconnected from sex. In schools around the world, wherever gender identity theory has been taught, children have absorbed the lesson that “gender” means “gender identity,” rather than sex. Thus, for these children, being a man or woman is a matter of feelings, rather than biology. In media, in corporate governance, and in international initiatives, “gender” is being used to indicate “gender identity.”

In recognition of the grim reality of how ingrained the idea of “gender” as “gender identity” has become, in this handbook we have followed the example of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and used the terms sex or sexual identity to the fullest extent possible. We are convinced that it is crucial that anyone engaged in catechesis or pastoral care use the terms sex or sexual identity, rather than gender or gender identity for several reasons. First, as pastoral workers or catechists speaking on behalf of the Church it is important to use the language of the Church. Words indicate reality. Sex indicates the reality of human embodiment as male or female. Sexual identity indicates the reality that a human being’s identity cannot be separated from embodiment as male or female. Sexual identity indicates the unity of body and soul in the person, whose identity can never be reduced to mere feelings or experiences but is always related to being embodied as male or female. Second, using the terms sex and sexual identity introduces clarity among students and others who have been conditioned to believe that being male or female is a matter of feelings or desires. Third, using sex and sexual identity, especially on Church documents or in Church communications, avoids the risk of seeming to endorse gender ideology and other SOGI initiatives. Finally, grounding discourse in the factual understanding of who the human person is serves as a firmer foundation for countering future distortions about the nature of the person, including attempts to remold the human person through transhumanism. In fact, our approach must be to inculcate in young Catholics a spirit of gratitude for the gift of body and soul, and of appreciation for human ecology.

Some will object that the use of “gender” is necessary to build a bridge with feminist movements, or to use the language of the day, but that argument fails to reflect the increasing number of secular feminists insisting on using the word sex because they recognize that the concept of “gender” has been used to strip females of sex-based protections. Others worry that not using the term “gender” somehow renders Catholics “unscientific” or behind the times, but that argument too does not withstand scrutiny as “gender identity” claims become increasingly subjective and ideological. Finally, in the past, some outstanding and faithful Catholic philosophers have suggested that we not give in to the culture but instead should “redeem” the concept of “gender.” But those arguments initially were made more than a decade ago and fail to take into account the aggressive initiatives in schools, health care, and media since then. If it is ever possible to redeem the concept of “gender,” it could only happen in a culture that understands the reality of sex and is willing to admit that “gender” only makes sense if pegged to the reality of embodiment as male or female. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to occur for decades, perhaps generations.

In this handbook, Part I provides a factual context for the Church’s response to gender ideology, offering information from philosophers, physicians, and psychologists about the fact of embodiment as male or female, the medical consequences of “gender transition,” and the psychological implications of a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or of feelings of distress about one’s sexual identity. Part II explores the issue of ideological colonization, the term used by Pope Francis to describe how gender ideology has sought to displace the values, beliefs, and culture of countries, by demanding conformity to the global agenda of gender ideology, and of families, by stripping parents of their ability to bring their children up according to deeply held beliefs about the nature and meaning of human sexuality and the family.

Part III then turns to the theological grounding of the Church’s understanding of the human person, considering Christian anthropology, biblical anthropology, moral theology, and the nature and meaning of the Incarnation. Moreover, it gives an overview of important Church teaching on the issue of gender ideology.

Part IV shifts to consider pastoral care, with specific discussions of spiritual discernment, sacramental care, ways to ensure accuracy of baptismal records, and concerns about some of the prevalent non-Catholic Christian approaches to pastoral care.

Part V addresses specific needs of groups adversely affected by gender ideology, looking at the pastoral care of detransitioners, families of “transitioners,” and those who, in addition to struggling with confusion about their sexual identity, have also become involved in occult practices and seek deliverance from those entanglements. The discussion of specific pastoral care is illuminated by considering what parents have told us they need from the Church, as well as guidance from the Church on how to navigate the influence of gender ideology in schools. Part VI follows up with specific discussion of legal issues for those involved with health care, as well as those working in other settings. Part VII concludes by considering different perspectives on language issues that often trouble lay people seeking guidance from the Church, including demands that they comply with preferred pronouns and adopt other ideologically laden language.

Finally, we wish to extend our deepest gratitude to all who helped in preparing this collection. So many of the insights reflected in this collection were inspired by Catholic parents who have shared their stories with us — their successes, their heartaches, their ongoing concerns, and their gratitude for the Church’s concern for them and their children. We are grateful for their heroic witness of faith in the face of tremendously challenging personal experiences. Their stories have been heard and are bearing fruit in this collection. We are grateful to our contributors, who generously gave of their time and expertise and were always available to respond to questions or offer insights. We also wish to acknowledge the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the International Catholic Jurists Forum, Ave Maria School of Law, and the Catholic Information Center for their generosity in sponsoring a multi-day conference with the contributors, so that this endeavor would indeed be a true collaboration. We cannot give enough thanks and credit to Madeline Pelletier, program coordinator for the Person and Identity Project, who was invaluable in seeing this project through from inception to completion and in helping to prepare the manuscript for publication. Finally, we thank our spouses, Michael, Terry, and Kathy, and our children for their patience, their unfailing support, and their love.

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