Sacramento diocese allows Catholic parish to show transgender activist film
A Catholic parish recently screened a film
spotlighting “gender identity,” the presentation of which its diocese says did
not controvert Church teaching.
The LGBT and Adult Faith Formation ministries of Sacramento’s
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church hosted Call Me Malcolm on
June 22. The film was billed by the parish as a “down-to-earth, non-threatening
and wholesome film” about a “transgendered man in his first year of United
Church of Christ seminary.”
The
90-minute documentary was written by a United Church of Christ (UCC) minister
and produced in 2005 by the UCC.
It
follows Miriam, now “Malcolm,” a UCC seminary student who had undergone “sex
reassignment” surgery and travels around meeting with other “transgender”
individuals.
“Call Me
Malcolm is an amazing
story of the human spirit and God's spirit, and the liberating struggle to
realize and express with confidence the marvelous gift of one's truest sense of
self,” the UCC’s information says of the film. “The good news of Malcolm's
story is the way in which shame and fear are overcome by grace, compassion and
knowledge. Viewers cannot help but come to a deeper understanding of faith,
love, and gender identity, and by doing so, arrive at a deeper understanding of
their own journey.”
An
individual interviewed in the film censures the Christian view of gender
theory, ChurchMilitant.com reports, calling it repressive and not the norm, and
a female Protestant minister makes the claim that “transgenderism” is biblical,
stating:
I think God was very clear in Genesis. When we hear
the language, in the image of God was humanity created both male and female;
and you've heard me articulate before that my theology of transgender is that:
if you are looking for someone who incarnates the most clear and whole vision
of who God is, based on our Scripture tradition, that it has to be a
transgender person who experienced both male and female. That is the most whole
vision of the sacred that we are going to get.
St.
Francis of Assisi Parish advertised the event in a Facebook post and its parishbulletin, telling attendees to “be ready for stimulating
post-film discussion.”
LifeSiteNews
asked the contact for the event, who was listed in the church bulletin entry,
for the parish’s intent in screening the film, and how doing so reconciled with
Catholic teaching on gender and sexuality.
Richard
Hernandez, who in addition to serving as St. Francis’ director
of outreach is
also listed on theSacramento
Rainbow Chamber of Commerce as
its vice president, serving on its Gala and Drag Queen Bingo committees, said
it was not the right time to offer comment on the movie.
This
was because the parish, founded and overseen for more than 120 years by the
Franciscan Friars of California, was in the process of becoming a diocesan
parish, Hernandez said, and outgoing pastor Father Ken Laverone (who assisted
Pope Francis in the canonization of Father Junipero Serra during the pontiff’s
U.S. trip last September) was in Europe walking the Camino de Santiago and
Camino Portuguese.
Diocese
of Sacramento spokesman Kevin Eckery told LifeSiteNews the diocese was made
aware of the parish’s plans to screen the film after fielding inquiries
expressing concern in advance of the scheduled date. The diocese gave the
go-ahead to show the film, Eckery said, as long as it was made clear that it
was non-catechetical in nature and there was someone present at the event to
explain Church teaching on sexuality and gender so no one went away confused
about Church teaching.
It
was likely that Hernandez, as parish outreach director, would have been the one
on hand to explain Church teaching, he said, and further emphasized that
neither the parish nor its departing pastor encourages behavior in conflict
with the Church’s teaching or has been affirming of anything but Catholic
principles.
St.
Francis of Assisi Parish has been a host site of Sacramento’s LGBT Service of Remembrance, it is listed on Yelp in the “gay church” category, and is also recognized by homosexual
activist groups, with Dignity San Francisco calling it a “safer parish” and New Ways Ministry terming it a “gay friendly” parish.
Catholic
teaching regards gender “reassignment” as impossible and a violation of God’s
intent as Creator.
The
psychological condition of gender confusion, or gender dysphoria, is classified in the American Psychiatric
Association’s list of mental disorders, and counseling against promotion of
“gender identity” is especially crucial given that more than 41 percent of
active "transgender" people try to kill themselves, a rate 10 times
higher than the average 4.6 percent suicide attempt rate.
Pope Francis has himself disapproved the idea of shifting gender,
in a 2015 interview calling “gender theory” a form of “ideological
colonization.”
His
predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, spoke twice about gender ideology in
the latter part of his pontificate, as “a negative trend for humankind,” and a “profound falsehood,” which “it is the duty of pastors of the Church” to
put the faithful “on guard against.”
And
while Pope Francis in recent controversial remarks said the Church must ask forgiveness of gay people who feel offended or feel marginalized
by the Church, heneglected to mention the grave material and spiritual consequences of homosexual acts, the
loss of salvation and the dire effects to
mental and physical health.