WESTMINSTER, England (LifeSiteNews) — The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have issued a “pastoral reflection” on issues of gender ideology, condemning sex-change surgery and gender theory, though shying away from committing to a “doctrinal” position in practice.
Issued via a press conference April 24, the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) launched its 11-page document, “Intricately woven by the Lord: A pastoral reflection on gender.”
As noted by the bishops in their press release, the text – two years in the making – opposes the so-called “gender ideology” popular in current society, drawing instead on the Biblical teaching safeguarded by the Catholic Church that God made man in His image and in two sexes, male and female.
The bishops wrote modern society has witnessed “a new language” with new “words and phrases appearing in public discourse such as: ‘trans,’ ‘transgender,’ ‘gender identity theory,’ ‘being born in the wrong body,’ ‘gender fluidity ’or ‘gender being different from sex assigned at birth.’”
READ: ‘From the depths of hell’: Inside the profound evil of transgender ideology
While they summarized current ideas on gender as being “difficult to speak of a coherent movement in which all proponents of gender identity theory speak with a unified voice,” the CBCEW stated that the proponents of such ideas are “generally at odds with a holistic understanding of the human person; they adopt a dualistic understanding, totally separating the material from the psychological and spiritual.”
This view, they wrote, “is highly pervasive across sections of society, raising significant and pressing pastoral challenges for the Church, as well as challenges in the fields of law, medicine, education, business and religious freedom.”
The CBCEW wrote that “those who experience discomfort around issues relating to sex and gender, are reassured that such confusion, although deeply painful, is an expression of our shared humanity. We all experience dissonance and dilemmas.”
In contrast to the ideologies espousing gender theory and sex-change, they pointed to an intimate link between the body and the soul, and that – especially given the creation of man in the “image of God” – that all such attempts to change sex, or ideologies which “promote a misleading view of the human body,” are to be rejected.
READ: Why ‘gender transitioning’ conflicts with Catholic moral teaching
“We are to honor our body resisting medical interventions, intended to ‘reassign’ gender where these destroy the body’s fertility or sexual function,” the CBCEW wrote.
While decrying certain “rigid cultural stereotypes of masculinity and femininity” as “unfortunate and undesirable,” the bishops wrote that “sexual identity” is not something to be manipulated, but is an undeniable fact:
However, it is clear that the sexual identity of the person as man or woman is not purely a cultural or social construction and that it belongs to the specific manner in which the image of God exists.
With that in mind, the CBCEW outlined their specific opposition to so-called sex-change surgery:
We cannot encourage support for reconstructive or drug based medical intervention that harms the body. Nor can we legitimise or uphold a way of living that is not respectful of the truth and vocation of each man and each woman, called to live according to the divine plan.
READ: JK Rowling slams gender ideology after another man caught preying on women by claiming to be ‘trans’
They warned particularly about gender dysphoria experienced by children, stating that “[m]edical intervention for children should not be supported.”
It should also be recognised that social ‘transition’ (living in the opposite gender role) can have a formative impact on a child’s development and can set a child on a path towards later medical interventions. Care should be taken to avoid this especially with young children.
Instead, the CBCEW wrote that when a family or an individual is experiencing the “challenges” of gender ideology, the Catholic aim “is to help them rediscover and cherish their humanity as it was conceived and created by God, body and soul.”
During the press conference, Cardinal Vincent Nichols (President of the CBCEW) and Bishop David Oakley were at pains to stress that the document is “pastoral rather than a doctrinal statement.”
The text does reference how those who adhere to traditional teaching on sex and gender have been “cancelled” or are “even losing their jobs.” But neither Oakley nor Nichols would elaborate on what sort of support priests or Catholic teachers might expect, should they face opposition or legal issues for refusing to use a child’s “preferred pronouns” that did not conform to the child’s biological sex.
Responding to LifeSiteNews’ query, Nichols warned “the media” against creating a “doctrinal conflict” with the text. He stated that the document was not a call for “rigorous teaching” but for “pastoral accompaniment.”
“So please don’t misuse this document,” Nichols added.
Oakley further warned against arguing from position of “this is right and this is wrong” in utilizing the document.