CLAIMING OUR VOICES
in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
June 9, 2020
 
   
Statement on Bishop's Sexuality Guidelines-  

  
 
 
Paula Ruddy, Art Stroebl and Brian McNeill worked hard on the following statement. Please honor their work by reading it and watching the short video.
CCCR Board
 
Dear Fellow Catholics, Summer 2020 brings us face to face with the harsh realities of rampant racism and COVID 19. Each source of suffering cries out for responsible action.
Another harsh reality and source of suffering we can do something about: on February 20, 2020, the Archdiocesan leadership issued some Guiding Principles for schools and parishes on human sexuality that prohibit children from questioning their gender. We don't think the Guiding Principles should be implemented under the radar.  
Read them here on the Archdiocesan website.   
 
Please email Archbishop Hebda (hebdab@archspm.org ) and tell him your Spirit-inspired reaction to these Guiding Principles and the applications spelled out in them.
Please ask him to place a moratorium on the Guiding Principles until they have been evaluated in a broader consultation process.  
 
Note in the definitions there is no entry for "gender identity"; there is only "sexual identity". The major point the bishops are making is that a person's sex and gender are the same thing, either male or female, depending on the sex organs apparent at birth. The message: "Your identity was determined at birth. Church teaching tells you how to act as a male or a female. God expects you to conform, and we will have no disruption or confusion in our educational system."  
 
The message is spelled out In the "Applications." Students are prohibited from expressing a difference between sex and gender or questioning the Minnesota bishops' statement of principles, definitions, and applications. There will be no fuss about names, pronouns, clothes, or hair.  
 
"5. Expressions of a student's sexual identity are prohibited when they cause disruption or confusion regarding the Church's teaching on human sexuality. "
And the teachers who presumably agree with the Minnesota bishops' statement of principles, definitions, and applications are assured of an "inviolable right" not to be questioned.  
 
"6. The consciences of students and employees will be respected with the assurance of their inviolable right to the acknowledgement that God has created each person as a unity of body and soul, male or female, and that God-designed sexual expression and behavior must be exclusively oriented to love and life in marriage between one man and one woman."  
 
The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Association of Psychologists, all recognize the validity (non-pathology) of the experience of gender identity as distinct from sexual identity. They all claim that research is on-going and each person's experience should be attended to with respect. You can find them by googling "transgender studies."  
 
If the Minnesota Bishops meant to be pastoral in these Guiding Principles, it is difficult to see how. Dignity Twin Cities, speaking for the people most affected--gender questioning youth and their families--see only harm, psychological and spiritual, in them.
         ●  If you were a young person with questions about sex and gender, would you experience God's love for you in these directives? What message do the gender questioning children receive about their relation to God?
         ●  How do the bishops explain their targeting of gender-questioning children?
         ●  How is refusal to allow questioning of the Minnesota bishops' teaching justified as education?
         ●  Can the Church's teaching on human sexuality stand up to scientific reasoning and questioning?
         ●  If not, how do we maintain integrity as educators? Or as Catholics under the leadership of the Minnesota bishops, for that matter?
         ●  Are the bishops using these Guiding Principles to protect themselves from legal liability for discrimination? Is that pastoral?
 
 
Thanks for stepping up and speaking your conscience. Watch this short video for an example of a family dealing with a gender non-conforming child.  
 
Kai Shappley: A Trans Girl Growing Up In Texas | Emmy-Winning Documentary | them.
Kai Shappley: A Trans Girl Growing Up In Texas | Emmy-Winning Documentary | them.



CCCR Board

 
Still living in joyful hope,
CCCR Board