In a lengthy pastoral letter, entitled in English The Body Reveals the Person: A Catholic Response to the Challenges of Gender Ideology, The Body Reveals the Person: A Catholic Response to the Challenges of Gender Ideology.published last August, Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, current ordinary of the Diocese of Toledo in the United States, offers an articulate, doctrinally and scientifically documented response to the pressing and sometimes distressing issue of transgender practices that have become widespread in many so-called first world nations.
The influence of culture
The prelate explains that the so-called "gender ideology" is based on the erroneous premise that sexual identity does not depend on biological reality but on individual feelings and desires, often contaminated by the widespread materialistic, emotivist and hedonistic counterculture.
Therefore, this misconception rejects the obvious male/female distinction as discriminatory and claims an alleged right to medical interventions to "affirm" the sexual identity chosen by each individual, even against common sense. Moreover, it violently and intolerantly encourages the "cancellation" of those who defend the existence of personal and moral truths inscribed in the reality of bodily human nature.
The bishop refutes the "dogmas" of such ideology -which spreads strongly in society and in the laws passed by the various parliaments- with Jason Evert's apt statement: "you were not born in the wrong body, but in the wrong culture".
The problem is serious. Currently, one in four teens in the United States declares themselves "LGTBQ." And irreversible transgender surgeries on teens tripled in that country between 2016 and 2020. The personal and social destruction of this praxis is heartbreaking. This has been courageously and clearly denounced by journalist Abigaíl Shrier (Irreversible damage: Transgender madness seducing our daughters), and psychologists and university professors José Errasti - Marino Pérez Álvarez (No one is born in the wrong body).
The teaching of the Church
The pastoral letter recalls, for its part, the fundamental principles of the "unitive anthropology" taught by the Catholic Church, namely:
- the body reveals the person, who is unconditionally loved by God, as male or female;
- the human body is sacred, the image of God and, since the reception of the sacrament of baptism, the temple of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 3:16);
- people do not have bodies, are The biblical accounts of creation affirm the goodness of the human body, which is to be respected and cared for, for it possesses absolute dignity and a destiny of eternal glory in the resurrection of the flesh (cf. CIC992-1004);
- the original masculinity and femininity sustain the spousal meaning of the human body, which contains an intrinsic call to reciprocal self-giving in order to form a conjugal communion of faithful and fruitful love.
Moreover, John Paul II explained in his splendid "Catechesis on the Theology of the Body" that the predominance of concupiscence makes it difficult to understand the essentially human value of the body, so that - in the distorted inner perception - it demeans it, depersonalizes it and treats it as a mere object of use and manipulation, denigrating human relationships and the social configuration. However, the good news of the redemption of the body and heart accomplished by Christ allows us to discover that "where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (Rom 5:20).
Instead, for the "dualistic anthropology" that is at the basis of gender and transgender ideology, the human body would be infra-personal, mere manipulable material, an object that can be radically reconstructed through technology.
Thus, for the LGBTQ doctrine, the "assignment" of masculine or feminine identity, according to the natural biological objectivity of sex, would be a mere label arbitrarily imposed; instead, surprisingly, subjective feelings would be the ones that shape the constructed reality. This distorted vision supposes the triumph of irrational arbitrariness.
Starting from Biology
In fact, feelings are themselves changeable and unstable, while sexuality determines each of the cells of the body, and underlies the conformation of psychology, so that in reality it is impossible to change the sex of a person. For in every human being, all the cells from conception are XY if male and XX if female, and this conditions his or her entire endocrine system. There are only very rare cases of hermaphrodites who have double sex or Turner syndrome, which is a chromosomal alteration.
Good medicine does not obey feelings, but objective, scientifically contrasted reality. Surgeries and other hormonal "therapies" of sex change produce irreversible damage and mutilations in people and in their healthy organs. For this reason, many countries are rectifying and prohibiting these unnatural therapeutic interventions in order to prioritize psychotherapy, which can promote the healing and maturation of the personality.
Just as it would be an aberrant medical practice to obey the unacceptable demands of a patient with anorexia or a personality disorder, neither should medical professionals support requests contrary to therapeutic principles from those who absurdly demand castration.
The influence of the cultural context
The social and media pressure exerted by the ideologues of the lobby The use of the gender pronouns "homophobes, transphobes and haters" as insulting and criminalizing labels for those who do not accept their aprioristic and unfounded postulates. Moreover, in fairness the inappropriate use of gender pronouns demanded by "trans people" should be avoided as untruthful, confusing and harmful to human beings and to society.
Finally, the North American prelate expresses - quoting number 56 of the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis Amoris laetitiae- what are the doctrinal principles and pastoral attitudes that the Church, mother and teacher, should adopt in these complex and difficult situations: on the one hand, the whole of civil and ecclesial society is called to show sincere and cordial closeness to people who suffer intensely because of the various forms of gender dysphoria; but, on the other hand, it must not give in to the pressures of groups that postulate systems contrary to human nature.
Moreover, divine grace always allows us to recognize the goodness of the body and also to assume the various sufferings endured, united to the redemptive cross of Christ (cf. Col 1:24).
If the Catholic Church were to stop defending and proclaiming these fundamental truths it would cause grave harm to the faithful, and especially to people struggling to overcome gender confusion, influenced by harmful ideologies.
In the face of the spread of dehumanizing currents, we Christians must second the divine call to a general mobilization in favor of a culture of care for life, marriage and the family. The good news of Jesus Christ, the incarnate and redeeming Word, is the foundation of evangelizing hope and the prevalence of God's original plan.
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