Gender ideology and its language should be resisted in all Catholic institutions, according to a new document by the bishops of England and Wales. Source: Catholic Herald.
The 11-page paper also stated that the Church was firmly opposed to medical intervention for children who want to change their sex.
It also said that “social transition”, in which a person lives in a role of sex opposite to their own, must also be avoided in Church institutions and especially in the case of children.
In a press conference on April 24, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster and Bishop David Oakley or Northampton declined to say whether their teaching would lead to a ban on the use of “preferred pronouns” in schools and other settings, and said that was a matter for the Catholic Education Service.
“This is not a doctrinal statement, it’s a pastoral reflection,” said Cardinal Nichols, the president of the bishops’ conference.
The statement, however, says: “This pastoral accompaniment also requires care in the choice of language used.
“Our choice of words is always to be assessed in the complex situation of social interaction. Sensitivity and a desire to show respect are important.
“We should never seek to cause offence to another, including in situations where the other person advocates a view of reality that is different from or departs from the Church’s vision of the human person.
“Yet care should be taken to resist the temptation to adopt the language of gender ideology in our institutions.”
The bishops’ document, called Intricately Woven by the Lord: A Pastoral Reflection on Gender, comes just weeks after the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith also released a document which explicitly rejected gender identity theory and its ideology.
Called Dignitas Infinita (On Human Dignity), the Vatican document said gender ideology “envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family”.
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Catholic Bishops of England and Wales in ‘absolute harmony’ with Vatican against gender ideology (By Simon Caldwell, Catholic Herald)
