US bishops’ canonical committee to offer ‘clear analysis’ of transgender and consecrated life

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (OSV News) — A number of Catholic bishops nationwide have sought advice from their bishops’ conference following the public disclosure of transgender status by a Lexington diocesan hermit.

“This issue is now on our agenda,” Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on canonical affairs and church governance, told OSV News. the Church. “Other bishops may be looking into this and have asked questions about it. We will therefore try to give a clear analysis that will provide doctrinal and canonical guidelines that we hope will be useful to any bishop.

Bishop Paprocki spoke with OSV News on June 14 after the final public session of the USCCB Spring 2024 Plenary Assembly in Louisville.

Less than 100 miles from where the U.S. bishops gathered, Brother Christian Matson, 39, a hermit from the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, came out as transgender on Pentecost Sunday (May 19, 2024), after being received as such when he professed vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to Bishop John E. Stowe a year before.

Bishop Stowe, who declined OSV News’ request for comment, told Religion News Service in a May 19 article that he considered Matson “a sincere person looking for a way to serve the Church.”

The bishop also told the outlet that “hermits are a rarely used form of religious life… but they can be male or female. Because there is no pursuit of the priesthood or commitment to sacramental ministry, and because the hermit is a relatively quiet and isolated vocation, I saw no harm in letting him live out this vocation.

But Archbishop Paprocki told OSV News that following a “preliminary discussion” within the Canonical Affairs and Governance Committee, “the initial consensus… was that it is not really possible for a person (transgender) to be admitted to the role of hermit or consecrated person. life if they do not repent of what they have done.

Bishop Paprocki told OSV News that the question “was not presented to us as a question of address to any particular bishop.”

“Consecrated life is dedication to God, and the Church’s teaching on transgender ideology is very clear,” Archbishop Paprocki told OSV News. “Pope Francis has been very clear on this subject. And the Bible is also very clear. God made us male and female. And so someone who claims to be a transgender person is basically denying a biblical and doctrinal teaching of the Church, and so I would say that it would be very difficult for a person like that to enter authentically into consecrated life unless that she does not repent.

However, he added, “at least as far as being a hermit is concerned, if that person has repented and is somehow trying to take steps to return to the decision she made, well maybe there is a possibility for a person in that situation. But this is not the scenario that was presented to us.

As a result, the case “also raises further questions in terms of Catholic teaching on mutilation of the body, which is also part of the Church’s moral objection to transgender surgeries unless it is in these very rare cases of ambiguous sexuality that a baby could be born with. But it is very rare.

Bishop Paprocki also noted an apparent incongruity between Matson’s public revelation and the vocation of the hermit, which — although its roots date back to the third century — was only formally recognized by the canon law of the universal Church in 1983.

“You also wonder why a hermit makes public statements, when you see that the very nature of the heremitic life is to withdraw and devote oneself to a life of private prayer with God,” he said. “So it seems that someone who claims to be a hermit and then gives public interviews raises serious questions about the seriousness of his commitment to this way of life.”

In a June 13 press briefing during the spring assembly of the bishops, USCCB President Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the American Archdiocese for the Military Services, in response to a question from , a member of the media, also expressed concerns about the impact of the disclosure on the integrity of the eremitical vocation according to canon law.

Asked by OSV News if the USCCB committee would consult the Vatican on this issue, Archbishop Paprocki responded: “I think we can handle that here.

“Pope Francis has made very clear statements,” he said, also highlighting the “Dignitas Infinita” statement issued in April by the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“’Dignitas Infinita’ contains very clear sections on gender ideology. So I think we already have guidance from the Holy See,” said Archbishop Paprocki. “So… I would say that falls within our purview. If during our study we have questions that do not seem clear, I suppose we could take them (to the dicastery). But for now, I think there are very clear directives from the Holy See on this subject.”

Gina Christian is a multimedia journalist for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @GinaJesseReina. OSV News Editor Gretchen R. Crowe contributed to this story.