Independence Day 2020

“All men are created equal.” Is there one among us who has not wished that this had been stated in another, more inclusive way? That the whole American project could have been based on a different premise? While we celebrate the progress we have made, we are conscious of how much more we want to do.

Case in point. How to handle the allegations of sex abuse about composer David Haas? Jamie Manson’s NCR article sparked the most discussion ever on Southeastern Pennsylvania WOC’s listserv. The music is beautiful and meaningful; the allegations are believable and dispiriting. Manson skewers the analysis that sex abuse in the church is caused by clericalism only, the convenient refuge of Pope Francis. She states it as clearly as I’ve ever seen it: “it’s rooted in a theology of male superiority.” “An elite class of spiritual men” like Haas and Jean Vanier has taken advantage of teachings that “God designed men to lead and take initiative, and God created women to receive and serve.” What better example of the danger of complementarity?

I am also appalled this week to read of the policy of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis regarding transgender children in Catholic schools. The new national reporter at NCR, Christopher White, obtained access to the document and an accompanying email that said “THIS POLICY IS NOT TO BE INCLUDED IN FACULTY/STAFF OR PARENT/STUDENT HANDBOOKS. It is intended as an internal policy with complementary norms.” While I wonder what the “complementary norms” are, I do not wonder at all at the desire to keep secret the policies that limit the self-presentation of “confused” transgender children – or to refuse to admit them at all. CHILDREN. HOW DO WE CARE FOR OUR CHILDREN?

While we are getting used to rattling off our support for “LGBTQ” people, we are distancing ourselves from the reality of the lives represented by those letters. A friend’s grandchild is transgender. I have been so moved by the care their public elementary school did to accommodate their change. That’s what I expect in a Catholic school, too, not challenge and judgment. We must catch up, but we are not doing that. White lists three other Catholic school systems with similar guidelines – and links to a wonderful story of an English transgender girl’s experience fighting for acceptance, winning because of support from her schoolmates.

We cannot be satisfied with platitudes, as in Indianapolis: “It is important to note that when an individual decides to partake in such alteration, this does NOT change the fact that he/she is deserving of dignity as a child of God, made in His image and likeness. The person remains a person of God even when the decisions or acts of that person are contrary to Church’s teachings.”

A year ago those teachings were articulated by the Vatican in a document that even the prefect who issued it admitted it might have been improved by moving beyond the gender theory of the Vatican (see my sister’s comment on last week’s blog for how the use of “gender theory” has changed) to the lived experience of transgender people. You can find New Ways Ministry’s full coverage on the Vatican document here, or you might just read my comments in this blog on June 15, 2019. What I found most deplorable in the Vatican’s recommendations is that they are not based on current scientific and medical knowledge, only on abstract theological principles.

Catherine Buck, in New Ways Ministry’s Bondings 2.0 presents many responses to the Indianapolis policy. Though they are much stronger, I won’t go through them now, since I used so many similar ones last year. Rather, I will quote Buck’s conclusion: “Transgender children are not confused. With policies like this one, they are being failed on every level by the adults and the church tasked with protecting them.”

How long will church officials rely on patriarchy, secrecy, and platitudes to deny the equality of all persons and their right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”? We need to “stand up, stand up for your rights,” as we have heard so often in this moment in history. Independence Day 2020, indeed.