Diocese of Toledo, Ohio

Browsing From the Pastor

Oct. 8th/9th Bulletin Article

     As I was scanning the news headlines a few weeks ago, I was surprised to see an article co-authored by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, and Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York. These are two of the most influential voices in the Catholic Church here in the United States, and they don’t always agree on how the Church should be addressing the moral issues of our time. So when I saw their jointly authored article, I was curious about what issues brought these two powerful voices together.

     The title of their article summarizes well its content: “Catholic hospitals welcome transgender patients—and stand firm in their religious convictions.” The background for this is that the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is proposing a new rule that would make it a federal crime for a “…health care facility or worker to object to performing gender transition procedures, regardless of whether that objection is a matter of sincerely held religious belief or clinical judgment.” Thankfully, Cardinals Cupich and Dolan accurately identified this for what it is: “…government coercion that intrudes on (the) religious freedom…”

     Those who propose such legislation do so on the basis of overcoming ‘discrimination.’ However, they are willfully blind or they choose to remain silent about the fact that they discriminate against one group of people to please another group of people. For many the justification for doing so is simply that the minority should be preferred over the majority. Cardinals Cupich and Dolan politely referred to this effort by the HHS as “misguided.” These proposed directives come from many of the same politicians who, “…do not want to impose their personal beliefs on other Americans.”

     Cardinals Cupich and Dolan ask the question: “Does objecting to performing gender transition procedures—but welcoming patients who identify as transgender—constitute discrimination? Of course not. The focus of such an objection is entirely on the procedure, not the patient. Prohibiting the removal of a healthy, functioning organ is not discrimination…”

     “People of many faiths, or of no faith yet with deep personal convictions, may find these procedures profoundly troubling, and their constitutional rights deserve to be respected. In a society that protects the free exercise of religion, religious health care providers cannot be expected to violate the teachings of their religion as a condition of continuing their care, and religious health care workers cannot be expected to violate their consciences as a condition of employment.” (All quotations: Cupich, Cardinal Blase J. and Dolan, Cardinal Timothy Michael,Catholic Hospitals Welcome Transgender Patients—and Stand Firm in Their Religious Convictions,” America Magazine, September 26, 2022)

     Cardinals Cupich and Dolan speak for many people beyond Catholics. As they indicate, many non-religious people find these procedures “profoundly troubling” for many reasons. Social sciences continue to show that such procedures do not resolve the internal emotional and psychological troubles such people experience. When such procedures are directed toward children, they become even more “profoundly troubling.”

     The society in which we live has become unhealthy for the human person. Machinery and technology thrive, but humanity is struggling and suffering. We struggle with meaning and purpose, selflessness and self-control. Are we ready to turn back to God completely? Anything less doesn’t get us where we need to be. In the battle of good and evil, partial “victories” leave evil still standing.

 

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