The Vatican has issued a new document rejecting the concept of changing one’s biological sex. This is a setback for transgender people who had hoped Pope Francis might be setting the stage for a more welcoming approach from the Catholic Church. World Religions Around the world, major religions have diverse approaches to gender identity, and Read more
A few weeks ago, a funeral was held for Cecilia Gentili in New York’s St Patrick’s Cathedral. The funeral was a cause of scandal and great controversy for several reasons. First, Gentili was a publicly professed atheist. Her stand-up comedy acts included jokes about blasphemous sex acts far too vulgar to put in print. Second, Read more
In an unprecedented move, over a dozen US Catholic bishops convened at St Louis University in January for a private meeting aimed at deepening their understanding of transgender people. The meeting sought to understand the challenges transgender people face. It included discussions with transgender individuals, their families, theologians, medical professionals and church ministry workers. The Read more
Transgender students are now permitted to enrol at a women’s-only Catholic college in Indiana Its board-approved nondiscrimation policy followed the putting together of the College’s “President’s Task Force for Gender Identity and Expression” earlier this year. St Mary’s Catholic College’s updated policy says it “considers admission for undergraduate applicants whose sex is female or who Read more
The Vatican has affirmed that transgender individuals are eligible to participate as godparents and witnesses in Roman Catholic sacraments of baptism and marriage, and they can be baptised. The Vatican’s document, signed by Pope Francis and Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, was published on the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith website on Read more
Christians are responding to a fake Bible passage reportedly generated by ChatGPT that said Jesus accepts trans-identified individuals, stating, “there is no man nor woman.” “And a woman, whose heart was divided between spirit and body, came before him,” the fake passage reads. “In quiet despair, she asked, ‘Lord, I come to you estranged, for Read more
The short answer to this question is no. Gender is something that belongs to humans; God is beyond gender. But because we believe in a personal God, and people are gendered, some of us can’t help but envision God as having a gender. Throughout Christian tradition, believers have leaned heavily toward depicting God as male. Read more
An 18-year-old woman is rapidly becoming one of the most powerful voices against transitioning children at a moment in which most politicians and media outlets lack the courage to speak out. Chloe Cole is a self-described “former trans kid” who de-transitioned after undergoing years of puberty blockers and an irreversible double mastectomy at the age Read more
In the space of a generation, sexual behaviour once considered immoral and beyond the pale is now endemic and considered normal. Long gone are the days when the statue of David displayed in Melbourne’s Myers emporium had to be covered with a fig leaf and where nudity in the musical Hair caused moral outrage. The Read more
For two years now, I have gone to Mass twice every Sunday, although I do so seated at my kitchen table. I can see the local Catholic church from my window, but I haven’t been inside it since the brief window, mid-pandemic, of supposed normality in July 2021. From my small town in Oregon, I Read more