Pope Francis goes to bat for the Transgender Community?

[Susan]

In a new encyclical—that's a letter laying out official Catholic doctrine, Pope Francis laid out the case for the connection between climate change and oppression of the poorest and most vulnerable. According to Wired Magazine, "It's well-argued, clear, at times quite moving...and 42,000 words long."

The following section has also been suggested as speaking positively about the transgender condition.

The acceptance of  our bodies as God's gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation.

Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of  any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one's own body in  its femininity or masculinity is necessary if  I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different.

In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of  God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek "to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it".

Human ecology is inseparable from the notion of  the common good, a central and unifying principle of  social ethics. The common good is "the sum of  those conditions of  social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfilment".

Underlying the principle of  the common good is respect for the human person as such, endowed with basic and inalienable rights ordered to his or her integral development. It has also to do with the overall welfare of  society and the development of  a variety of  intermediate groups, applying the principle of  subsidiarity.

Outstanding among those groups is the family, as the basic cell of  society. Finally, the common good calls for social peace, the stability and security provided by a certain order which cannot be achieved without particular concern for distributive  justice; whenever this is violated, violence always ensues. Society as a whole, and the state in particular, are obliged to defend and promote the common good.

In the present condition of  global society, where injustices abound and growing numbers of  people are deprived of  basic human rights and considered expendable, the principle of  the common good immediately becomes, logically and inevitably, a summons to solidarity and a preferential option for the poorest of  our brothers and sisters.

This option entails recognizing the implications of  the universal destination of  the world's goods, but, as I mentioned in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, it demands before all else an appreciation of  the immense dignity of  the poor in the light of  our deepest convictions as believers. We need only look around us to see that, today, this option is in fact an ethical imperative essential for effectively attaining the common good.

Wired Magazine interpeted this as, "And how about a little more open-mindedness for transgender people?" What do you think.

[FreyasRedemption]

Hmm. Isn't this Pope Francis the exact same guy who compared us to nuclear bombs in terms of being unnatural a while ago? If this is meant to be some kind of an apology, I'm not convinced. He doesn't even mention us by the name. Something he had no problem doing when spouting hate at us.
If the Pope would just say: "stop harassing trans people, they are doing nothing wrong" the world would instantly become a little less hostile for us. As I said, not convinced.

[ChiGirl]

See, I read this as everyone should be happy with the body God gave us. 

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[Jerri]

I have mixed regard on my read on his position, I feel as a leader and spritually connected person he should understand the seperation between body and spirit or soul of a person at least in regards to what is reflected in the words printed, I personally do not feel that he is supportive at all, and would rather have us give thanks and praise for flesh before spirit and soul which I feel is totally wrong for me and does not follow any of the teachings I have had in a spirtual sense but that is just my read on it

[marsh monster]

It doesn't sound trans positive at all. Kind of sounds like we should suck it up and walk it off...

[AndrewB]

I too read this as him wanting us to accept what God has, in his mind, gifted unto us. He would rather our mind comform to the presentation of our bodies, as I read it, rather than our bodies becoming more closely aligned to our mind/soul/spirit/essence, commonly via social and medical transition. But that's just how I read it, it could just be poor verbiage.

[RavenL]

Also reading it as we need to accept the body we have.

[Lady Smith]

I read it as having to accept the body you've got as well.  I had hopes that Pope Francis would be a force for change within the Church, only once again our reality of self has been ignored.  This is exactly what led me to quit being a 3rd order Franciscan and leave the Catholic Church.

[Cindy]

I think what the Pope says has to be read in context with what he does not say.  I feel it unlikely that he can or would openly accept gender diverse people, but by not saying to reject people is quite a move forward.

His comments about climate change have really caused a ruckus politically and are again a major shift in Roman Catholic political interaction at an International level.

I am also pleasantly surprised by his calling two USA priests to the Vatican for a trial for paedophile rape. This again is a very major step for such a conservative organisation.

Sadly, with everything that he has said recently, I would not be surprised if he is soon found dead in his sleep. His comments must be causing great angst in the entrenched politics of the Church.

I doubt a replacement would be so accepting or willing to change the fundamentals of how the Church has operated.

[LordKAT]

It has a rather negative vibe from my reading.

[Deborah]

The church doesn't recognize the possibility of a mind/soul body duality.  For the church the soul and body are a unity and any conflict can only be self delusion, mental illness, or demonic possession. 

As far as we are concerned his comments are explicitly negative.


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