UNITED STATES
Diary of a Whimpy Catholic
June 7, 2015 by Max Lindenman
Last week, at a Sacra Liturgia conference in Manhattan, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone warned his audience that “gender ideology” threatens the foundation of the faith. To illustrate his point, he went on to list the “grand total” of 14 gender identities recognized by a major university, adding, “I’m sure even more will be invented as time goes on.” A parent at one Marin County’s Catholic schools objected, calling the archbishop’s statement “ill-considered, hurtful and lacking in knowledge and compassion.”
Whatever may be said about Cordileone’s impish tone, he’s right that opening a gap between people’s anatomy and their self-conception upsets the whole apple cart of Catholic anthropology. Not only does it overthrow the Catholic view of the unified person for a system of body-soul dualism, it demotes the body to junior partnership. With no automatic regard for the equipment we were issued, we risk losing sight of how God meant for the sexes to complement one another, and, by uniting physically, to create new life in a way that mirrors his own creation of the world.
So that’s how gender ideology threatens Church teachings. Fair enough — it bore repeating. But if we accept that gender dysphoria is a real condition, we really ought to consider how Church teachings threaten the faith of the people it affects, and the people whom they affect.
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