A Roman Catholic apostolate to support the dignity and inclusion of transgender laity.

Archive for March, 2013

Transexual sub secretum letter to the bishops

In this article for Conscience Magazine a publication of Catholics for Choice https://transcatholicorg.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/to-be-or-not-to-be-a-catholic-transexual-speaks-out/
I proposed that the Catholic Church didn’t understand the transgender experience. The church has no official teaching on the subject and that the mistreatment of transgender people is due to existing cultural ‘norms’. It has inspired others in our faith to more research and authorship.
I now have a unauthorized translation of the original Latin document that the sub secretum letter to the bishops was based on. It is clear from this document from 1997 was based on the most conservative thought by the medical community of the time. It’s only purpose was to protect the all male hierarchy in a time of doubt about gender. It specifically makes no judgement about the morality of gender change. Much has changed about how we understand gender identity in the past 16 years in society and in the medical community.

There may come a day when the church has a position on gender identity and until then I will simply appreciate the great support that many of us feel from local parishes and hope that god guides future church leaders to a better understanding of the spiritual journey that is the transgender experience.

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