U.S. Bishops’ Advisory Council Seeks National Guidance on Gender Identity; And More News
1. The National Advisory Council for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which includes lay people, appealed to prelates at their fall assembly to develop better guidance on issues of gender identity. Mark Sadd, the Council’s chair, told the bishops that the Council had adopted a nonbinding resolution in September to make this request. Sadd added, “If it is not you, our bishops, who speak on these (issues), then who will speak? … If it is not now in the present, then when?”
2. Dignity/New York celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this fall, which included a special liturgy and dinner to mark the occasion. Gay City News reported on the event, and included a longer history of how the chapter has developed over decades. Dignity/Boston also marked 50 years this year.
3. CitizensGo Africa, a right-wing Catholic organization, launched a petition calling on Disney’s new CEO, Robert Iger, to stop the company from being “the ruinous factory of LGBTQ+ indoctrination that it is now.” The petition included language about Disney helping “groom children” and decried the portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters, as well as suggesting that financial difficulties at Disney were attributable to its emerging pro-equality stance.
4. Fr. James Martin, SJ, had a second private audience with Pope Francis in mid-November, which lasted 45 minutes and was “very warm, very inspiring, and very encouraging,” according to the Jesuit priest. Previously, the pope and Martin met in 2019. To read more, visit America.
5. A court in Poland ruled that that an IKEA manager did not discriminate against an employee when terminating that employee over anti-LGBTQ+ comments in 2019. The employee had posted religious-based criticism about the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia. Government prosecutors in conjunction with a right wing Catholic group sued the manager for discrimination based on religious belief, a charge which could include a sentence of up to two years in prison if the manager was convicted. A lawsuit filed against IKEA is still being adjudicated.
—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, December 10, 2022
Re: Article One: Gender Identity Issues:
Question 1:
“If it is not you, our bishops, who speak on these (issues), then who will speak?
Answer:
Non-binary and transgender individuals, along with their family members, friends, allies, scientists, anthropologists, biologists, psychologists, and medical professionals.
Question 2:
“If it is not now in the present, then when?”
Answer:
When the Church is ready to truly listen. Not a single statement, degree, or doctrine should be issued beforehand. Not one.
It would be much better for the Church to remain silent on these issues and say nothing than to add to the damage that has already been done.
Be silent, bishops. Listen!
– Duane Sherry (he/him)
Proud parent of a transgender adult
“Advisory council calls on U. S. bishops to provide guidance on gender dysphoria” (Catholic News Service 18 November 2022)
“An advisory body to the U.S. bishops has called for the development of practical and pastoral guidance on gender dysphoria to help laypeople and clergy in their ministries in parishes, schools and other settings.”
[…]
“Mark Sadd of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, who is chair of the council, told the assembly that members of the advisory group had been discussing the issue of gender dysphoria for several years and that it felt it was time to make the request through a nonbinding resolution adopted during its September meeting.”
If such a document is prepared by the UCCB as it is presently constituted, it will be an awful document jam packed with stereotypical myth and errors. It will be nothing more than a synthesis of the several existing offensive written policies of the several dioceses.
I am sure everyone joins me in expressing my deep thanks to the USCCB, for once again displaying fearlessly Christ-like leadership by focusing all its attention and energy on such grievous and world-threatening issues as the dangers of “gender identity/theory,” and not on trivia like racism, child abuse and protection of child-abusers, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, our incineration of the planet …
It is also worth noting that on October 15 Dignity Washington DC celebrated its 50th anniversary with a gala dinner and silent auction for 100 at Clyde’s restaurant. One of our founders, Sr. Jeannine Grammick of Newways Ministries, was a guest. The next day Marianne Duddy-Burke, Executive director of Dignity USA has homilist at a celebratory anniversary Mass.
That’s wonderful! Is the chili at Clyde’s still great?