In the United States, the national conference of Catholic bishops rejects the concept of gender transition, leaving many transgender Catholics feeling excluded.
If it did not cause scandal or “disorientation” among other Catholics, a transgender person “may receive baptism under the same conditions as other faithful,” the document said.
How is this allowing anything? The hardliners among Catholics will just always see it as a scandal.
So if you are a religious transgender person you need to find a community where everyone is quite open minded to this. How nice…
There is a lot of division in the Catholic Church right now, because of the strict traditionalists that are now in it. So it's not out of the realm of possibility for someone to get a more accepting congregation across town.
I see progress here, though, because now they are acknowledging that the issue with accepting transgender people is with the "disorientation" among the congregation, not with anything disqualifying about the Trans person themselves. Prior popes would have called them "disordered" and "unnatural" and excluded them with vigor.
Catholic church moves glacially on everything. They didn't jail Galileo because they actually disagreed with him on anything, but rather because he was trying to jump in immediately (and being a dick about it).
Now, jailing a person for moving too fast and being a dick isn't a good thing to do. Neither is further perpetuating ostracism of LGBTQ+ folk just because they want to introduce change slowly. But at least they're consistent about it.
I am sorry, what?
How is this allowing anything? The hardliners among Catholics will just always see it as a scandal. So if you are a religious transgender person you need to find a community where everyone is quite open minded to this. How nice…
There is a lot of division in the Catholic Church right now, because of the strict traditionalists that are now in it. So it's not out of the realm of possibility for someone to get a more accepting congregation across town.
I see progress here, though, because now they are acknowledging that the issue with accepting transgender people is with the "disorientation" among the congregation, not with anything disqualifying about the Trans person themselves. Prior popes would have called them "disordered" and "unnatural" and excluded them with vigor.
Catholic church moves glacially on everything. They didn't jail Galileo because they actually disagreed with him on anything, but rather because he was trying to jump in immediately (and being a dick about it).
Now, jailing a person for moving too fast and being a dick isn't a good thing to do. Neither is further perpetuating ostracism of LGBTQ+ folk just because they want to introduce change slowly. But at least they're consistent about it.
Seems to me like an attempt to placate the conservatives while allowing room for progressives.
Won't be very successful.