"This Sunday, Pentecost 2024, I'm planning to come out publicly as transgender" Matson told Religion News Service on May 17.

Matson, who has a doctorate in religious studies, said he was speaking out with the permission of his bishop, John Stowe of the Diocese of Lexington in Kentucky.

He may be the first openly trans person in his role in the Catholic Church, Matson added. However, Religious News Service was not able to verify that claim.

Matson, 39, explained that he transitioned in college and converted to Catholicism four years later.

He hoped his coming out would create a meaningful conversation about a particularly contentious subject in the community.

"You've got to deal with us, because God has called us into this Church" Matson said in his message about transgender Catholics.

Matson's coming out came soon after the Vatican issued "Dignitas Infinita", a 20-page treatise that described gender theory, abortion and surrogacy as attacks on humanity's connection with God.

"Vatican-level documents that have come out on the subject have not engaged with the science at all" Matson said about the Church's official take on trans issues.

He has sent multiple letters to the Vatican and asked leaders to engage with more trans individuals.

To serve the church

When he felt called to serve in the Church, Matson consulted a canon lawyer about his options. He was advised that becoming a diocesan hermit would be the best thing for him.

However several communities had rejected Matson before he finally found a place in Kentucky.

Seeing Matson's sincere call to serve, Bishop Stowe approved his path as a diocesan hermit—a solitary religious vocation less bound by community restrictions.

"Hermits are a rarely used form of religious life, but they can be either male or female" Stowe explained. This allowed Matson to live his vocation without pursuing priesthood or sacramental ministry.

Matson's coming out aims to foster dialogue and greater understanding within the Church.

"I don't have a hidden agenda, I just want to serve the Church" he said. "People can believe that or not."

Both Matson and Bishop Stowe anticipate potential backlash but remain committed to this path. Stowe emphasised that "My willingness to be open to him is because it's a sincere person seeking a way to serve the Church."

Sources

Religion News Service

New York Times

CathNews New Zealand

An American church leader, Bishop John Stowe of Kentucky challenged Trump's pro-life claims in a recent webinar. He told his audience that rather than being pro-life, Trump was actually anti-life.

"For this president to call himself pro-life, and for anybody to back him because of claims of being pro-life, is almost willful ignorance."

"He is so much anti-life because he is only concerned about himself, and he gives us every, every, every indication of that," Stowe said.

"Pope Francis has given us a great definition of what pro-life means," Stowe explained.

"He basically tells us we can't claim to be pro-life if we support the separation of children from their parents at the U.S. border, if we support exposing people at the border to COVID-19 because of the facilities that they're in, if we support denying people who have need for adequate health care access to health care, if we keep people from getting the housing or the education that they need, we cannot call ourselves pro-life."

Trump's alleged pro-life stance deliberately seeks to win over Catholic voters, Stowe said.

"Every unborn child is a precious gift from God," he said at the 2018 March for Life in Washington.

Stowe says being truly pro-life must include efforts towards racial, social and environmental justice.

"We have to be concerned for the unborn children, it's foundational for us."

While the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference often criticizes Trump administration, environmental and immigration policies, Stowe's critique is unusual in criticism of Trump himself.

The webinar, which was about the church's future after 2020, was hosted by the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs.

The other two speakers on the webinar panel were Shannon Dee Williams, the Albert LePage assistant professor of history at Villanova University, and Michael Bayer, the former director of evangelisation and adult formation at St. Clement Parish in Chicago.

Speaking about the future of the church, they addressed the importance of racial and social justice advocacy.

"The church has to take leading roles in campaigns that are working to protect Black lives [and] working to dismantle white supremacy," said Williams.

In her view, the church needs to address inequities in health care access and outcomes, end mass incarceration and secure police reform and accountability.

"Where are our hierarchy on this? Why aren't we planning a million-person march in Washington, D.C. for immigrants?" Bayer asked.

"I've been in those marches protesting the assault on pre-born life. Where are our mass Washington, D.C. [efforts to] show up and protest the assault on Black and brown life?"

The webinar, which was about the church's future after 2020, was hosted by the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs.

Source
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: National Catholic Reporter