Catholic Bishop, Sister Spar Over Guidelines for Transgender People

A Catholic sister who has advocated for transgender individuals within the faith recently expressed surprise after a bishop who voted to revise medical guidelines related to gender-affirming care said he consulted with her beforehand.

Transgender individuals have requested a bigger stake in their particular faith-based quarters dating back to at least 2015, according to the Pew Research Center during that time, which found that Reform Judaism, the United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist and Episcopal churches all supported transgender people being fully included in the life of the church and that they could be ordained as ministers.

A poll conducted two years earlier found that LGBTQ+ Americans were less likely to be involved with any type of organized religion, singling out Islam (84 percent), the Mormon church (83 percent), the Catholic Church (79 percent) and evangelical churches (73 percent) as those they claimed were "unfriendly toward people like them."

A unanimous vote occurred on June 16 at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' spring assembly to revise the Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs), causing trepidation for some within the LGBTQ+ community about whether certain services will be downsized or eliminated together at Catholic-based hospital systems.

The voice vote, introduced by doctrinal committee chair Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, was met with some concerns before voting was conducted. The ERDs do not just single out transgender individuals—though they are among those who would be affected. Mandates on other issues include end-of-life care and abortion.

Flores said the directives on transgender care "is a sensitive matter and will require a wide consultation," according to National Catholic Reporter (NRC), a newspaper that reports on issues related to the Catholic Church. Others, meanwhile, expressed a sense of wariness.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, called for consultation from the transgender community, NRC reported. San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy said that the bishops' health care directives are "meant to be a pastoral medical document to inform and guide" the nation's Catholic health care ministries.

Meanwhile, Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, Texas, said the doctrine committee received input from transgender people, adding that there remains "a lack of clarity between what is authentic gender dysphoria and the gender ideology that in part is preying upon these people and increasing their suffering."

Olson told NRC he consulted with Dominican Sister of Peace Luisa Derouen, who according to her biography has been an outspoken advocate for the transgender and faith-based community since 1998. Derouen has previously written about how there are lesbian and gay people in her family, and how she's always had lesbian and gay friends.

After Olson mentioned her name and the vote ultimately concluded, Derouen told NRC that she was "very surprised" that he invoked her name considering the pair had only interacted twice three years ago.

Derouen said Olson "intended to give the impression that he's spoken extensively with trans people and with me," adding that their previous communication was minimal, and "he was not grasping what I was trying to say."

The doctrinal note introduced in March, titled "On the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body," warned about technological developments "producing possibilities not only for helpful interventions, but also for interventions that are injurious to the true flourishing of the human person."

Chieko Noguchi, executive director of public affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Newsweek that the vote was procedural.

"Once the doctrine committee has something to present, the full body of bishops will review, discuss and vote on the proposed revision at a subsequent gathering of the bishops," Noguchi said. "It is important to note that the ERDs place the timeless teaching of the Catholic Church into the contemporary health care setting and are an expression of Christ's desire for the good of every person."

She did not respond when asked multiple times about Olson's purported conversations with members of the trans community, including Derouen.

Bernard Schlager, executive director of the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, told Newsweek that the bishops "refuse to avail themselves of the wisdom and learning" of doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists who are well versed in working with transgender individuals and understanding their health care needs."

He continued: "The document ignores the voices of those theologians who are open to new ways of viewing gender, ways that move beyond a restrictive binary understanding that ignores the lived reality of many people who claim transgender identities. And, most importantly, the document gives no voice whatsoever to transgender people of faith who, in embracing their authentic identities, have simultaneously embraced the person that the divine intended them to be and become.

"At the very least, this document will probably cause many trans-Catholics to leave the church and, at worst, cause some to despair and even consider suicide," Schlager said.

The Dominican Sisters of Peace, members of the Order of Preachers, describe themselves as "vowed Catholic Sisters who strive to live a life of peace-making wherever we are and in everything we do."

"Call it conversion of life, transformation in God or growing in integrity and freedom—there are many ways it can be described," Derouen said during a 2022 LGBTQ+-based conference in New York. "But what I can never say enough is that what transgender people experience is holy and good, not sinful or deluded or selfish."

She added: "What transitioning means is different for everyone, but at some point, most arrive at the third stage of their sacred journey and can declare, 'I may have lost much, but I have found myself. Now I know who I am in God, and I'm on solid ground.'"

A document published last Tuesday by the Vatican, resulting from a two-year assessment, found support in promoting women to decision-making roles, for a "radical inclusion" of the LGBTQ+ community, and for new accountability measures to check how bishops exercise authority, according to the Associated Press.

Newsweek reached out to Derouen, Olson and the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth for comment.

Update 6/28/23, 9:50 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comments from Bernard Schlager of the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion at the Pacific School of Religion.