SOMEONE asked me what my
views are regarding the gender
issue. I must admit that I have been quiet about this matter
since I
know it is a very delicate issue that can easily provoke
unnecessary
controversy and noise.
As priest, I get to talk
to all kinds of people—straight,
gay, etc.—and I try my best to listen to each one, exerting
effort to
find where they are and where they are coming from. Only
then would I
try to clarify things. And even if there are disagreements,
I try my
best to maintain friendship and warm relations. There are
times when
certain things simply have to be tolerated for a while, at
least,
without condoning them.
I believe that
differences, conflicts, error and even sin
should not be a reason to lose or even simply weaken
friendship and
love for one another. If at all, they should occasion
greater love.
But given the complexity
of the issue, what I would suggest
is for us to study well a Vatican document from the
Congregation for
Catholic Education entitled, “‘Male and female he created
them’:
Towards a path of dialogue on the question of gender theory
in
education.” This was issued on February 2, 2019.
That document outlines
well the Christian attitude and
teaching about the gender issue. What I would rather do here
is to
quote some parts of that document which I consider would
give us a
good picture of the Church’s position regarding this issue.
In its Introduction, we
are given a general view of how the
issue stands today. “It is becoming increasingly clear that
we are now
facing with what might accurately be called an educational
crisis,
especially in the field of affectivity and sexuality,” it
says. “In
many places, curricula are being planned and implemented
which
‘allegedly convey a neutral conception of the person and of
life, yet
in fact reflect an anthropology opposed to faith and to
right
reason.’”
It continues by saying
that “the disorientation regarding
anthropology which is a widespread feature of our cultural
landscape
has undoubtedly helped to destabilize the family as an
institution,
bringing with it a tendency to cancel out the differences
between men
and women, presenting them instead as merely the product of
historical
and cultural conditioning.”
The document zeroes in on
an ideology that is generally
known as the ‘gender theory,’ which “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.”
As a consequence, the
document says that “this ideology
leads to educational programmes and legislative enactments that
promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically
separated
from the biological difference between male and female.
Thus, human
identity becomes the choice of the individual, one which can
also
change over time”.
But as the document
continues, “the Christian vision of
anthropology sees sexuality as a fundamental component of
one’s
personhood. It is one of its modes of being, of manifesting
itself,
communicating with others, and of feeling, expressing and
living human
love.
“Therefore, our sexuality
plays an integral part in the
development of our personality and in the process of its
education:
‘In fact, it is from [their] sex that the human person
receives the
characteristics which, on the biological, psychological and
spiritual
levels, make that person a man or a woman, and thereby
largely
condition his or her progress towards maturity and insertion
into
society.’
“As each person grows,
‘such diversity, linked to the
complementarity of the two sexes, allows a thorough response
to the
design of God according to the vocation to which each one is
called”.
In the light of this, ‘affective-sex education must consider
the
totality of the person and insist therefore on the
integration of the
biological, psycho-affective, social and spiritual
elements’”.
And the document
continues with more ideas, suggestions and
strategies. We should spend time studying them closely.
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