Catechetical Leadership Conference

MADISON  Catholic catechetical leaders and catechists need to walk a fine but solid line when ministering to people who suffer confusion about their sexual identity or gender. With great compassion, they should work to build loving relationships with these afflicted people, while staying true to the Gospel proclamation that God made marriage exclusively for one man and one woman — all to help bring them closer to Christ.

That’s what Damon Owens, an internationally known speaker on marriage, sex, and family life from the Catholic perspective, told a large group of catechetical leaders, catechists, clergy, and parish pastoral leaders from around the Diocese on April 17 during the 2021 Dioce­san Cate­chetical Leadership Confer­ence. They joined Owens, who has roots in the Diocese, for the two-hour videoconference that morning, guided by the theme, “Redeem­ing Love: A Catholic Understanding and Approach to Questions about Identity, Sexuality, and Gender.” The diocesan Office of Catechesis at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization here sponsored the event.

“As catechists, you are called to see God in everyone you meet — people, who are unique and unrepeatable. But, you are also called to be confident in the truth and realize that you have a part in bringing them to Christ, even if you don’t know how,” said Owens, a married father of eight and founder and executive director of joytob, a teaching ministry that proclaims the joy of being made in the image and likeness of God. “Be loving to the people [who are suffering sexuality or gender confusion] but don’t compromise, even if they do not always respond to the truth with acceptance,” he said.

Yet in ministering to people who are dealing with these “tender and urgent issues,” catechists should not “denigrate them.

“They are suffering in ways that we can’t understand. They are questioning their own existence. With great humility, we need to help them see themselves through Christ’s eyes. We also need to have empathy for their parents and what they’re going through,” Owens said.

Recently, issues that surround sexuality — do people consider themselves straight, gay, or something else? — and gender — do they consider themselves male, female, or something else? — have gained greater prominence in secular society. Some suffer gender dysphoria: a discomfort over feeling that their gender identity psychologically differs with their gender physically.

The gender identity movement promotes the falsehoods that sexuality and gender are only based on people’s personal experiences and not their bodies, and they can change their bodies to conform to their minds, said Owens, who lives outside Philadelphia but grew up in St. Lawrence Martyr Parish in Chester, where his father, Frank, is a retired permanent deacon.

Today, people with gender dysphoria can make the transformation from one gender to the other socially — changing how they talk, dress and behave; taking puberty blocking hormones for young people; taking cross-sex hormones for adults; and/or having surgery to change their physical gender characteristics and sex organs. These disordered ideologies about sexuality and gender — along with the widespread use of artificial contraception and fertilization — have done great harm to society. They have divorced sex from traditional marriage, reproduction from marriage and children from marriage, Owens said.

Contrast that with traditional heterosexual marriage, where a man and women live out the truth found in the Bible in Genesis — that we are made in God’s image and likeness as male and female. In a series of talks he gave on marriage, sex, and parenthood at the Vatican, known as the Theology of the Body, St. Pope John Paul II said that our physical bodies help reveal the ultimate and deeper supernatural reality of God in his creation. The fact that a married couple has the ability to reproduce — create a third person in the family — points to the Holy Trinity, one God in three persons, who have a “dynamic relationship,” Owens said.

“In the Book of Revelation, Christ is described as the bridegroom and the Church as his bride. Marriage is a sign to a greater end than having children: the reality of salvation,” said Owens, formerly the first executive director of the Theology of the Body Institute in Philadelphia, who also served as chairman of the 2016 International Theology of the Body Congress.

Catechists have the ability to speak the truth on these issues in the name of Christ through the teaching authority of the Church. They might experience resistance to the truth — or even bullying — from those who accept gender identity; secular society; people with gender dysphoria or their families, said Owens. He has spoken in the Diocese previously and is founder of Joy-Filled Marriage New Jersey and New Jersey Natural Family Planning Association.

In a question-and-answer period, Owens said that dioceses should create a policy on how catechists should handle these issues of identity, sexuality, and gender by referring to many of the related Catholic resources available. They include the 2019 Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education’s document, “Male and Female He Created Them: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education.” Dioceses should formulate a policy before any issues arise, Owens said.

“Every generation has its major issues to challenge us as believers. That is the stuff of our faith and helps build the kingdom of God. It helps us transform our hearts, so we can draw others to Christ. To do this, we need confession to reconcile ourselves to God and the Eucharist to deepen our communion with Christ and give us the zeal we need,” Owens said.

During the conference, Father Paul Manning, St. Paul’s executive director and diocesan vicar for evangelization, noted that issues of identity, sexuality, and gender have affected society, including in our schools, families, and Catholic ministries. Owens’ insights, he said, could “help us love, listen, and follow Christ the best way we can,” adding, “We are grateful for the light of today.”