Treat with compassion and speak truth – Archbishop at webinar on gender

Journeying with persons who experience gender dysphoria was highlighted by speakers at the Emmanuel Community’s webinar ‘The Gender Issue: I am Who I am’ held August 31. They are to be treated with compassion and sensitivity, but Catholics are also called to share truth.

Archbishop Jason Gordon in opening remarks noted that gender ideology had divorced gender from sex. “It is a system of ideas that is not necessarily rooted in the reality of a person’s biology, but it is just a set of ideas…and they are free to have whatever ideas they want; I am who I am, is one way of saying it, I could do whatever I want to do”.

The debate about Gender and its association with LGBTQI+ issue prompted the Emmanuel Community to host a conference aimed at bringing an understanding, based on science, of transgenderism, especially “as it presents; among children” and provide information to support youth, parents, families and members of religious communities.

Other speakers were Dr Michelle Cretella of the American College of Pediatricians, Jason Evert, author and founder of the Chastity Project, and Deacon Derek Walcott. Moderator was Administrator, Emmanuel Community, Jacqueline Allamani.

Archbishop Gordon explained that when God revealed His sacred name, “I am who I am” (Ex 3:14), it spoke to who the human is, and to divorce the relationship with the divine is to end up with the present troubles, which are creating a lot of challenge for young people.

There was a book published in England with 100 genders, Archbishop Gordon said. “If I am whatever I desire then everybody has something that they desire that is different. The multiplication of genders is an inevitable future of the world once gender ideology continues to be pervasive. He added, “There are all sorts of complexities.”

Christians are called to truth and to challenge. Archbishop Gordon said, “We have to understand there is something here about male and female relationship that speak of the divine attribute”. The truth is males and females were created and they each had a specific chromosome make-up, XY and XX, respectively.

Archbishop Gordon stated, “No matter what you do to your body, what tablets you take, whatever you do, your body right through to its smallest unit, and cell has this marking” of who you were created to be.

He said the Church teaching was clear. The first response is to love the person and ensure that they maintain their dignity regardless of how they identify. Second, the Catholic helps the person understand why the sexual act outside marriage between man and woman is morally wrong.

Archbishop Gordon pointed to the Catechism of the Catholic Church on chastity and homosexuality 2357-2358. He said the homosexual person, must be respected and treated with compassion and sensitivity; any sign of unjust discrimination must be avoided. “These persons are called to fulfil God’s will in their lives, and if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice at the Lord’s Cross, the difficulties they may encounter”. —LPG