CNA Staff, Oct 16, 2023 / 13:18 pm
In a recent joint letter to Catholics, two California bishops acknowledged that the “influence of gender ideology” has “become pervasive in contemporary society” and urged Catholics to respond to the zeitgeist with both “truth and charity.”
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and Oakland Bishop Michael Barber issued the September letter, they said, “to provide clarity and resources with regard to the teaching of the Catholic Church” on the matter of gender ideology.
Catholics, they said, have responded with “questions around the complex and sensitive topics of gender, sexual identity, and the nature of the human person.”
Like the bishops, many Church leaders have been working in recent months and years to determine just what the Catholic response to gender ideology should be since it touches on many practical matters as well as deeper elements of faith, including what the Catholic Church teaches about broad topics such as sexuality and bodily integrity.