Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, issued binding diocesan policies Sept. 12 on the "formation of young people in Catholic Christian anthropology and pastoral accompaniment of those who experience gender incongruence or same-sex attraction."
The policies, which apply to diocesan parishes, schools and institutions, are prefaced with an in-depth overview of church teaching on human dignity, identity and sexuality, affirming the difference between and complementarity of man and woman, which is oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The 11-page document specifies the ways in which those teachings should be applied in ministry to young people, while calling for compassion and charity for those who struggle with their sexual identity.
"In teaching, guiding, and serving our young people, we have the duty and responsibility to uphold truths of our faith. ... We also have the duty and responsibility to accompany our young people with love, respecting their dignity as beloved children of God," the document says.
The document specifies, for example, that “only pronouns that accurately reflect a person’s God-given sexual identity shall be used when addressing or refering to that person." Another says, "All persons must use the bathroom or locker room that matches their sexual identity, that is, his or her biological sex." The document prohibits "public advocacy for, or celebration of, sexual or ideologies contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.”
OSV News spoke with Bishop Rhoades in detail about the issues outlined in the document.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
OSV News: How would you place the current cultural debate over human sexuality, particularly sexual identity, in a broad historical context?
Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades: It's clear that many -- at least a significant number of people -- reject Catholic, Christian anthropology. It is challenging, because what we have now is something that just didn't happen overnight. We're talking about decades and decades of philosophical and cultural movements away from the Christian and biblical understanding of the nature of the human person. I'd say a lot of things today also result from the sexual revolution, which itself had philosophical presuppositions.
We're living in a culture today that is in many ways post-Christian. And therefore, I think we can look to the example of the early church living in a culture which was sometimes hostile to the Christian faith. Today, there may be some hostility, or just a nonacceptance of the vision of the human person -- or the vision of human sexuality, and its meaning and purpose -- that we have.
That was the same (challenge) for the early centuries of the church, where (in the surrounding cultures) there was a different understanding of the meaning and purpose of human sexuality, and even of marriage. Some of what we see today is a kind of bringing back of things that were acceptable in the culture of those early centuries. Abortion was acceptable then, although the church never allowed it. We're facing that same situation today on the issue of abortion. So there are different parallels (historically).
OSV News: Given those challenges, do you ever find yourself discouraged about the church's ability to effectively communicate to young people God's plan for human sexuality, particularly with regard to sexual identity?
Bishop Rhoades: I see signs of hope. I know a lot of young people who struggle with the church's teachings, but who do come to believe and accept these teachings through their own disillusionment with their experiences in today's culture. And I think some of the teachings which may seem difficult to live out are ultimately liberating. Everyone's called to chastity (defined in Catholic teaching as the integration of sexuality within the person, involving self-mastery).
There are many stories of people who have been caught up in a lifestyle that is contrary to the church's teaching and find themselves very unhappy and unfulfilled. And therefore the Gospel message is something that they then consider and will experience a conversion and find happiness. That's why I'm always hopeful.
OSV News: In your guidelines, you stress the need -- often expressed by Pope Francis -- to share God's truth in charity. Many times, however, our pastoral outreach ends up setting truth and charity in opposition to each other. Why is it important to integrate the two?
Bishop Rhoades: Pope Francis and Pope Benedict (XVI) have spoken about this (point), that it can never be one or the other. If it's just truth without love, that's something that's very cold -- and honestly, it's not even the truth, because God is love and therefore to speak truth without love is cold and impersonal, and (actually) not the whole truth.
And love without truth is mere sentimentality, as Pope Benedict said (in the 2009 encyclical "Caritas in Veritate"). It doesn't really have a foundation. It can be just sentimentalism, and we really don't express or convey God's love if we aren't faithful to the truth. It's not loving to ignore the harm of sin.
Some of the conduct or behavior (required) in the norms that we have promulgated may seem a little hard, but it's really out of love, and it's because if we're not following the truth, we can be harmed.
OSV News: You speak in the document of the need to listen to and accompany young people in this matter. What does that look like in day-to-day pastoral ministry, when the church and the culture are literally speaking two different languages here, with popular terms such as "gender" and "gender identification" at odds with church teaching?
Bishop Rhoades: I would find it unhelpful, if I were in that situation, to correct their language -- but I would not use it. Because if I'm pastorally accompanying someone, I don't want to turn them off by saying, "Well, you know, don't use that language."
But I would not use that language myself, because I think it diminishes people to express their identity as if it is primarily "sexual orientation." We shouldn't be defined by that.
Our fundamental identity and dignity lies in being adopted children of God. And I stress that quite a bit in the document.
OSV News: How can prayer and parish life help to address these issues?
Bishop Rhoades: I think prayer is really important. There's an epidemic among young people of anxiety and depression, a lot of wounds, negative feelings about themselves. These deeper wounds become manifest especially in the gender issue. I think sometimes there are other wounds underneath, and if they go forward with chemical or hormonal interventions or even surgeries, oftentimes they're not really dealing with what's underneath the struggle that they're facing.
I've talked to a lot of people about this, doctors and clinicians, and … when you talk about medical and scientific data on this, there are really not (many) longitudinal studies (on such interventions) and the harm being done. We do know stories of those who have deeply regretted having gone through sexual sex reassignment surgery. But we don't even know the long-term health impact of the chemicals involved here.
So there's a lot of healing needed. And I think in many ways prayer and the counsel that we give can be the affirmation of God's love, and hopefully they can experience that through us -- but also, and even more importantly, in their friendship with Christ through prayer.
So many young people that I know love Eucharistic adoration. They're in this noisy world, and in so much of the social media culture that it becomes overwhelming. They long for peace, for quiet.
And that's why I think we need to provide these experiences of prayer for our young people, so that they can rest with God and with Jesus, and experience the peace that he wants them to have, the healing that he desires them to have. That should be a really important part of our youth and young adult ministry, always.
I don't think youth and young adult ministry should all be social (activities). I really think it should be centered in prayer, and then offer experiences where we can talk and discuss, so we get to hear what's on their minds, and so they can ask questions.
In our diocese, we have some really strong campus ministry programs, such as those at the University of Notre Dame, the University of St. Francis and Holy Cross College. I see the happiness of a lot of those kids when that's a part of their life, because they have good friends, they have fellowship, they have prayer retreats. If anyone is struggling with issues about their sexual identity or same-sex attraction, they're very much welcome to experience the love of friends, the support of the church and prayer together, and (we can) help them in how to deal with these issues in a way that's faithful to the truth.
I'm a big fan of Eden Invitation (a ministry based in the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul that nurtures community and discipleship for those who seek to live out church teaching on human sexuality, while experiencing same-sex attraction and other sexual identity issues). I think they're modeling that approach. They're excellent, and I hope that they continue to grow, because we need that so much.
I think about some of the young teenagers or young adults who find affirmation or support or love in the communities that are promoting gender transition and so forth. My question would be, "Why aren't they finding that in our parish communities?" I think this is a call to the church.
In my own experience with a young adult who (veers away) from church teaching in this area, who's maybe struggling … I will never reject them. I hope they know … that I really do care about them, and that although they might disagree with the church on this, they know that we still love them. And I do see that in those situations, conversion can happen.
I think there comes a time of being dissatisfied with what one is hearing from the culture and living that way but not finding real happiness or peace. I think that opens one to another message, and the other message is what the church has -- the message of the Gospel.
