Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a new Vatican document on gender ideology:
The Congregation for Catholic Education has published the most brilliant and authoritative document on the sexes that is currently available. It literally tears to pieces the fatuous claims of gender ideology. Fortunately, it does not water down its account by trying to appease its critics.
“Male and Female: He Created Them” is not only the title of this work, it accurately conveys reality. God did not create mere human beings. No, he created two very different, yet complementary, sexes.
The document takes aim at gender theory, which, it says, “denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman and envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family.” Such a vision postulates the absurd notion that “human identity becomes the choice of the individual, one which can also change over time.”
The document notes how gender ideology developed in the 20th century. It celebrates the “freedom of the individual,” emphasizing that “the only thing that matters in personal relationships is the affection between the individuals involved, irrespective of sexual difference or procreation which would be seen as irrelevant in the formation of families.” To put it mildly, this position is sociologically illiterate.
This kind of subjectivism allows the gender ideology promoters to separate sex from gender. “This separation is at the root of the distinctions proposed between various ‘sexual orientations’ which are no longer defined by the sexual differences between male and female, and can then assume other forms, determined solely by the individual, who is seen as radically autonomous.” This kind of madness is now being taught in the schools.
The Vatican document rightly notes how gender ideology seeks to separate the body from human will, as if one can will his sex. This nonsense finds expression in the “fictitious construct known as ‘gender neutral’ or ‘third gender,’ which has the effect of obscuring the fact that a person’s sex is a structural determinant of male or female identity.” These theories, which include such wild notions as “intersex” or “transgender,” are, at bottom, attempts to “annihilate the concept of ‘nature.'”
There is so much more to this splendid document. It is written for Catholic educators, but it should be read by everyone. The loss of common sense, as evidenced by many in the humanities and social sciences, is directly challenged in this real-life reading of some eternal truths. [See my new book, Common Sense Catholicism: How to Resolve Our Cultural Crisis, especially the chapter titled, “Sex Equality,” for more on this subject.]
No wonder the gender ideology promoters are furious. This is a cogent take-down of their plainly stupid, indeed pernicious, ideas about man and society. Its timeliness could not be more fortuitous—it is a heady antidote to the many fictions entertained during “Pride” month events.
It cannot be said too emphatically that any Catholic who is at odds with this document is at odds with more than just the Catholic Church. He is at odds with nature, and nature’s God.
