Pope hosts 90-minute meeting with activists at behest of dissident nun
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Transgender and intersex activists met Pope Francis on Saturday, lobbying the pontiff for a change in the Catholic Church's doctrine on transgender surgery which involves the mutilation of the human body's sex organs.
The nearly 90-minute meeting was arranged at Casa Santa Marta by Sister Jeannine Gramick, a dissident nun who was silenced by the Vatican in 1999 – an order that has never been officially rescinded.
According to a press release from New Ways Ministry, a Catholic activist organization working to change the Church's teaching on homosexuality and transgenderism, 11 Catholics met with the pope, urging him "to move past the Church's negative approach to gender-diverse people."
Five members of the lobby group, including Dr. Cynthia Herrick, a medical doctor who is co-director of a "gender medicine" clinic, shared their testimonies with Francis, the press statement said.
Others who spoke to the pontiff on LGBT+ issues sharing their own experiences were Nicole Santamaria, a self-described intersex woman from El Salvador who immigrated to the United States because of death threats; and Michael Sennett, a self-described transgender man and theology graduate student who has been involved with church ministry for many years.
Deacon Raymond and Laurie Dever, pastoral ministers who are the parents of a transgender daughter, whose difficult transition led to a suicide attempt, also shared their testimonies with the pontiff, New Ways Ministry said.
The meeting was arranged by Sr. Gramick after Pope Francis issued his declaration Dignitas Infinita in April, condemning gender theory as "ideological colonization" and stressing that "any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception."
"This is not to exclude the possibility that a person with genital abnormalities that are already evident at birth or that develop later may choose to receive the assistance of healthcare professionals to resolve these abnormalities," the document clarified.
New Ways Ministry explained that "although the document emphasized that the Church treat all people with dignity and respect, it also contained a condemnation of medical care for transgender people who transition."
Sister Gramick "wanted Pope Francis to hear directly from transgender and intersex Catholics and those who support them, so she contacted the pontiff, and he eagerly accepted the opportunity," the activist group noted.
"I really wanted to share with Pope Francis about the joy that I have being a transgender Catholic person," Sennett, a woman who identifies as a man, told Reuters after the meeting, revealing "the joy that I get from hormone replacement therapy and the surgeries that I've had that make me feel comfortable in my body."
"We expressed that as the church makes policies in this area that it's very important to speak with transgender individuals," said Dr. Herrick. "The pope was very receptive. He listened very empathetically. He also shared that he always wants to focus on the person, the well-being of the person."
"The message really is that we need to listen to the experiences of transgender people," Gramick observed. The meeting "means that the church is coming along, the church is joining the modern era."
New Ways Ministry executive director Francis DeBernardo praised "Pope Francis' example of listening to LGBTQ+ people" and said he hoped it "will inspire other Catholic leaders to do the same."
"By their own admission the Catholic hierarchy has issued pronouncements about gender and sexuality without first consulting the people most directly connected to these topics," he noted. "Pope Francis is showing the church a new way of developing its teaching."
On behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, then-president Cdl. Francis George warned that New Ways Ministry has "criticized efforts by the Church to defend the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman and has urged Catholics to support electoral initiatives to establish same-sex 'marriage.'"
"No one should be misled by the claim that New Ways Ministry provides an authentic interpretation of Catholic teaching and an authentic Catholic pastoral practice," the USCCB statement emphasized, noting that the group "has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church."
However, on Dec. 10, 2022, Francis sent a handwritten letter on official Vatican stationery to Sr. Gramick, acknowledging he knew "how much she has suffered" and describing the Loretto sister as "a valiant woman who makes her decisions in prayer."
The Holy See Press Office did not list the meeting on the Vatican's official agenda of the pope's meetings for the day.
Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.
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