To the editor:
Father Tad Pacholczyk concluded in a July 16 column in The Catholic Messenger that “numerous aspects of our identity, especially those related to our bodily and sexual identity, are pre-determined, objective goods that we are called to recognize and respect in the choices we make.” He had made a strong case that transgender people have psychological problems, and they should not be surgically “mutilated” to collaborate with their mental disorder.
Today, my copy of the September issue of U.S. Catholic magazine arrived in the mail, and in it I read a lengthy article on transgender people written “By Sister Monica David, the pseudonym of a Catholic sister who has been ministering with transgender people since 1999.”
She writes that her ministry, focused on transgender people and their families, “would not be acceptable to some in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.”
She also states that “Transgender people are often perceived as psychologically unstable and acting against God’s will. But the origin of the issues they face is neither psychological nor moral — it is biological … The formation of the human fetus is a profoundly complex process. Medical research confirms that in some cases the sex organs that develop during the gestation process do not match the gender of the brain. This discrepancy is not a person’s choice.”
She wrote about ministering to transgender people who experience rejection rooted in the teachings of organized religion. They have come to believe that they cannot be true to themselves and to God. She said she has helped many of them to become more at peace with themselves and with God.
“Tragically, we often fear those who are different and want to keep them hidden,” she said. “But I am blessed to see in them the face of God.”
It is an interesting article.
Teresa Mottet
Fairfield
