August 2021

Why is transgenderism incompatible with Catholic teaching? It is my hope that this short dialogue will not be perceived as a pat answer intended to close conversations but rather as an opportunity to spark a deeper and more interesting exchange of ideas. Here are common objections and the Catholic reply. 

In our day and age, trust and mercy are as popular as tape recorders and fax machines: people wonder if they’re still around and working. Yes, they are. And when combined, their credibility is off the charts. 

No one had more complicated thoughts about friendship than Augustine, who died in the year 430 at the age of 75. That may be partly because we have so much of his writing, and over a long life his opinions must have developed.

People who struggle with scrupulosity often think that any little misstep is a mortal sin, which is just flat out wrong. Every time we go to Holy Communion, we’re essentially saying, I’m confident that I’m in a state of grace. And this gave me a tremendous confidence. As my spiritual director said to me, “Matthew, when you come to Christ, when you accept his salvation, you are standing on a mountain, okay? And this mountain is not easy to slip off of. In fact, you can’t slip off of it. If you want to throw yourself off of this mountain, you can, but that takes a free, deliberate, conscious choice.”

I wasn’t going to write this morning, as Toby’s godparents and their four girls are still here with us, and we have a day full of plans. I didn’t want to close out this particular series of letters, however, without a word about the Blessed Mother.