You could hear a pin drop.
That is what I thought as I witnessed 185 teachers, administrators, priests and staff from the nine parochial elementary schools listen in rapt attention and deep concern as Theresa Farnan, PhD, described the confusion and sometimes the horrors inflicted on adolescents under the label of “gender-affirming care” in the public schools.
A fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center focusing on the challenges of gender ideology as part of the Person and Identity Project, she has co-authored two books, Get Out Now: Why You Should Pull Your Child from Public School Before It’s Too Late and Where Did I Come From? Where Am I Going? How Do I Get There?
A consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and a contributor to EWTN, Theresa was invited by Dr. Gail Kingston, superintendent of the diocesan School Office, to present the Catholic Church’s teachings on gender, what is currently going on in society, especially the public schools, and, most importantly, how to address these issues should they occur in their schools.
“Each child is God’s work of art, ” said Kingston. 
The program was delivered with empathy and compassion by Farnan, whose depth of knowledge and passion for the subject matter were apparent. She began the teacher in-service program by recognizing that people of all political persuasions can either make good decisions or bad ones and, more importantly, that people on both sides of this hot-button issue want to help kids. They are not bad people or bad parents. Rather, they are vulnerable people who are being caught up in a cultural phenomenon that proves to be very destructive.
“Our kids are really struggling. It's been a couple of decades since the advent of social media. And so, they're very, very vulnerable to distortions about who they are,” said Farnan, acknowledging the challenges that today's youth face.
She went on to say, “Everybody has someone who is being touched by this phenomenon.”
Society’s false narrative
So, what is the narrative that we're seeing in our culture? It goes something like this ––
There are some people who are transgender. They are children or young adults who are literally born in a body that does not match their gender identity. And so that puts them at grave risk of harm or suicide. And so it's important for us to affirm these young people. Why? Because that's the only way for these young people to be happy and to lead an authentic life and not kill themselves.
Church teaching
This is in direct opposition to what the Church teaches. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains how each of us is called to accept his or her sexual identity.
“That particular phrase, ‘sexual identity,’ is so important because it conveys that you, as a person, are an embodied human being, body and soul, and created either male or female. So, your biological sex is something that can’t be just rejected or discarded, but it’s integral to who you are,” said Farnan. “Even back in 1992, the Catholic Church was affirming the importance of that truth."
Popes speak out
While Pope St. John Paul II did not explicitly address the concept of gender identity and gender confusion during his papacy, his teachings do reflect traditional Catholic views on human sexuality and gender roles, which are rooted in the belief in a binary understanding of gender as male and female.
In the intervening years, beginning with Pope Benedict in his Christmas address to the Curia, where he warned about the dangers of gender ideology, and then continuing throughout the pontificate of Pope Francis, we’ve had very clear guidance from the Catholic Church.
Pope Benedict said gender ideology undermines our understanding of who we are as a human being. That in rejecting your body, rejecting your creation as male or female, you are ultimately rejecting God, the Creator. He described it as a sin against God, the Creator, to reject the gift of yourself.
In 2016, Pope Francis spoke to a group of Polish bishops about the issue, saying, "Today, in schools they are teaching this to children — to children — that everyone can choose their gender." Pope Francis went on to relay a conversation he had with his predecessor, Pope Benedict, who said, “Holiness, this is the epoch of sin against God the Creator.”
What can be done?
It begins by teaching children at a young age about the soul and the body so that they have a strong foundation. However, as Farnan explained, many people, students and adults, were never properly catechized and are transferring from public schools. They don't share the same presuppositions about the person. So, when the Congregation for Catholic Education tells us we need to propose these topics — Christian anthropology, human ecology and defending the role of humans — we need to do it as if you're talking to someone who's hearing it for the first time.
So how do we handle those conversations? Pope Francis reminds us we need to accompany people, but we need to be clear that accompaniment always needs to be directed towards God the Father, in a kind, loving, nonjudgmental way.
By Wayne Gignac
If you would like to delve into this subjectmatter, a great place to start is the Person and Identity Project of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Their website is PERSONandIDENTITY.com