New Vermont Bishop’s Controversial Comments about Transgender Persons

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New Vermont Bishop’s Controversial Comments about Transgender Persons

Just days after his installation Mass as the new bishop of the Diocese of Burlington, Bishop Christopher Coyne gave an interview to Vermont Public Radio on February 2. During the interview, he was asked if there was a plan to reach out to transgender persons who no longer feel welcomed at church. His response was that he sees no reason why transgender persons would not feel welcome. He went on:

“There’s more and more evidence coming forward that a lot of this is biological. That it’s not just something that a person makes as a kind of fashionable choice or cultural choice, but that these, that transgender people are really struggling with the idea of gender identity, and that they have struggled with it for years—and that’s through no fault of their own. And so there’s no fault to be made, actually. This is who they are. … Everyone is God’s creatures. And I would invite anyone to come to the table, and I would hope that none of my priests, most especially myself, would ever say anything that would be hurtful … to transgender folk."
 
Katholish said:
New Vermont Bishop’s Controversial Comments about Transgender Persons

Just days after his installation Mass as the new bishop of the Diocese of Burlington, Bishop Christopher Coyne gave an interview to Vermont Public Radio on February 2. During the interview, he was asked if there was a plan to reach out to transgender persons who no longer feel welcomed at church. His response was that he sees no reason why transgender persons would not feel welcome. He went on:

“There’s more and more evidence coming forward that a lot of this is biological. That it’s not just something that a person makes as a kind of fashionable choice or cultural choice, but that these, that transgender people are really struggling with the idea of gender identity, and that they have struggled with it for years—and that’s through no fault of their own. And so there’s no fault to be made, actually. This is who they are. … Everyone is God’s creatures. And I would invite anyone to come to the table, and I would hope that none of my priests, most especially myself, would ever say anything that would be hurtful … to transgender folk."
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What does the Church say about this issue?
 
From the article:
Pope Benedict’s comments seem to suggest that God made us male or female and that rejecting that identity is a denial of our reality and a denial of the goodness of God’s work. Bishop Coyne’s comments, seem to argue that no, God made that person to be transgender through no fault of their own. Therein lies the controversy.
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but the article also addresses the question of gender-reassignment surgery and how that central issue places many transgender people at odds with what is typically understood as the Catholic position.
 
This is a manufactured controversy. There is nothing that Bishop Coyne said that contradicts what Pope Benedict said, nor anything that contradicts Catholic teaching.

Let’s not go looking for trouble in places where there is none.

The author of article is making a lot of assumptions on what he thinks Bishop Coyne “seems” to be saying. I think it would be better to focus on what Coyne actually said rather than jumping to (false) conclusions.
 
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