GREEN BAY (WI)
New Ways Ministry [Mount Rainier MD]
July 20, 2022
By Robert Shine, Managing Editor
Another U.S. diocese has issued new restrictive policies regarding LGBTQ issues in Catholic schools, and the new directives compare being openly transgender with sexual abuse.
The Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, led by Bishop David Ricken, included the gender policy in its “Education Policy Manual” for the upcoming school year. The manual includes detailed instructions for how to restrict the full participation in Catholic education of trans students, staff, volunteers, and ally parents. The document also includes a section on the theology upon which they these policies are based.
Preceding most of the manual’s content is a section titled “Catholic Principles of Human Sexuality,” which promotes the idea of complementarity of the sexes, denies the legitimacy of trans identities, and supports heterosexuality as the norm. Emphasizing chastity, this section at one point compares being LGBTQ to sexual abuse:
“Behaviors that are contrary to Catholic morality and the expectations of this diocese include but are not limited to: vulgar language and gestures of a sexual nature, immodest dress or deportment, expressions of lust, masturbation, pornography, fornication, homosexual activity, expressing a gender that is discordant with one’s biological sex, adultery, cohabitating in a sexual relationship outside of marriage, voluntary sterilization, artificial contraception, in vitro fertilization, procuring an abortion, and sexual harassment or abuse.”
The document goes onto reject the use of words like “lesbian” or “gay.” It also makes a broad and sspeculative statement about same-gender activity that is based on myth and stereotype, instead of fact:
“[It] should also be recognized that modern culture is actively attempting to desensitize others and even entice others without such innate [same-gender] tendencies into broadening their sexual attraction and activity beyond natural inclination with empty promises of additional excitement, adventure and fulfillment.”
Section 5045 of the “Education Policy Manual” mandates specific policies, namely that trans and non-binary people be dealt with according to their assigned sex rather than their gender identity. This treatment is required, but not limited to issues like names and pronouns, use of gender-segregated facilities, participation athletics, and documentation.
Specific to students, the policy blocks trans students from receiving gender-affirming medical care, such as puberty blockers, on school property (though it does recognize some medical care as allowed in “in rare cases of true genetic or physical anomalies, such as hermaphroditism or intersex”). While being “a student diagnosed with gender dysphoria” is not grounds to be denied admission to Catholic schools, the condition is that the student and parents are expected to “abide with this policy.” The penallty for not doing so is described:
“A student of any Catholic school who insists, or whose parents insist, on open hostility toward, or defiance of, Church teaching, or who otherwise intentionally violate this policy, may be expelled from the school pursuant to this policy.”
The policy is quite similar in its section on employees and volunteers, who are also mandated to act according to their assigned sex rather than their gender. For both groups, the policy states that violating it could lead to “immediate corrective action, suspension, and possible termination.”
The Diocese of Green Bay joins a growing number of U.S. dioceses which are issuing sharply anti-LGBTQ policies in recent years, often targeting young people who are most vulnerable. In the past two years, policies have been announced in Milwaukee, Marquette, Arlington, Lansing, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Springfield, Illinois, and many other places.
Clearly, these policies actively harm LGBTQ people involved with Catholic education and pastoral ministry. But there is another cost to them: they make the church less and less credible, not only in society, but among the faithful. The bishops reveal themselves in these policies to be out of touch with contemporary science and theological developments. Comparing trans identities to sexual abuse is nonsensical. Sadly, most Catholics recognize the diocese’s mistake, and many will ignore it or walk away. We hope that others will stay and challenge this policy with good scientific and social scientific knowledge, as well as compassionate and tender pastoral care, which Pope Francis prescribes.