Its board-approved nondiscrimation policy followed the putting together of the College's "President's Task Force for Gender Identity and Expression" earlier this year.

St Mary's Catholic College's updated policy says it "considers admission for undergraduate applicants whose sex is female or who consistently live and identify as women".

Among the 32 Board members are six religious sisters from the college's founding order and two priests.

Confirming its programmes are open to all, the College points to its mission: to 'empower women, through education, at all stages in life'.

"Essential to this mission is fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive campus experience."

College president Katie Conboy says admitting men who identify as women "encompasses our commitment to operate as a Catholic women's college".

In a Novembr 21 email, she reportedly told students and faculty that the school is "by no means the first Catholic women's college to adopt a policy with this scope".

At this stage, how the new policy will work in practice is still being determined.

The President's Taskforce findings include recommendations for housing policies, the student newspaper reported.

Indiana's bishop pushes back

Indiana's Bishop Kevin Rhoades is pushing back against the plan to allow enrolment of transgender students at St Mary's.

He is urging the College Board to correct its admissions policy "in fidelity to the Catholic identity and mission it is charged to protect".

The Board should "reject ideologies of gender that contradict the authoritative teachings of the Catholic Church regarding the human person, sex and gender" he said in a 27 November statement.

"The desire of Saint Mary's College to show hospitality to people who identify as transgender is not the problem. The problem is a Catholic woman's college embracing a definition of woman that is not Catholic" he added.

Rhoades says he should have been included in the Board's decision-making regarding the transgender admissions.

"It is disappointing that I, as bishop of the diocese in which Saint Mary's College is located, was not included or consulted on a matter of important Catholic teaching" he says.

"To call itself a ‘women's college' and to admit male students who ‘consistently live and identify as women' suggests that the college affirms an ideology of gender that separates sex from gender and claims that sexual identity is based on the subjective experience of the individual."

Online backlash

"Just found out my alma mater [Saint Mary's] ... will be accepting BIOLOGICAL MEN starting next fall" one online post reportedly said.

Online comments are also reported as saying:

"This decision is blasphemous and a complete rejection of the Church and its teachings on gender and sexuality,"

Another post is reported as saying: "We [Catholics] have an issue here!! Don't allow your child to go to this school!! [Saint Mary's] Shame on YOU!".

• CNA
• Pillar

Dozens of bishops had written to the USCCB president, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, requesting to postpone the debate until a later meeting. They wanted more time to prepare for the debate, and to discuss the issue in person rather than via a virtual meeting.

But prompt action is being sought by some conservative bishops who want to signal that President Joe Biden and other Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should not receive Communion.

Archbishop Gomez explained that the USCCB administrative committee approved a request from Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, for the discussion on drafting a document to examine the "meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the church".

Bishop Rhoades chairs the bishops' committee on doctrine, which would draft the document if approved by the full assembly.

In a memo, Archbishop Gomez said USCCB rules require that the body of bishops first be asked whether to issue a document on a particular topic.

"Importantly, the action item does not ask the body to approve a final statement, but only whether drafting of a text may begin," the memo said.

If the action is approved, the doctrine committee would begin its work, subject to the conference's "usual process of consultation, modification and amendment" when presented for consideration at a future general assembly.

"As you will note, the focus of this proposed teaching document is on how best to help people to understand the beauty and mystery of the Eucharist as the center of their Christian lives," Gomez wrote.

Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila, one of the conservatives engaged in the discussions, issued a statement Tuesday praising Gomez and saying he "followed the correct procedures to facilitate this critical discussion as a body of bishops."

Aquila referred to a May 7 letter to Gomez from the head of the Vatican's doctrine office, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, urging the US bishops to deliberate carefully and minimize divisions before proceeding with any action on the Communion issue.

"It was clear from it that the USCCB's plan to discuss and debate this important issue is warranted and encouraged," Aquila said. "In contrast, the publication of the letter calling for a halt to discussion at our June meeting on this vital issue risks creating an atmosphere of factionalism, rather than unity amongst the bishops."

But in a recent essay, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego made a case against the campaign to deny Biden and others Communion.

"It will bring tremendously destructive consequences," McElroy wrote. "The Eucharist is being weaponized and deployed as a tool in political warfare. This must not happen."

Sources

The Tablet

America Magazine

ABC News

Although Bishop Kevin Rhoades has been cleared of any wrongdoing,both the district attorney and the Fort Wayne diocese lamented that unnecessary harm was done to him after a suggestion of impropriety was leaked to the press.

"After a full investigation, the Dauphin County District Attorney has determined that there is no basis to conclude that Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades ever engaged in a criminal or otherwise improper relationship with a person whom we will refer to as J.T.," a statement by the district attorney says. Read more

Though the announcement follows years of petitions for an official "gay-straight alliance" club on campus, the university has chosen a more radical idea: It envisages creating a permanent student organisation grounded fully in Catholic social and moral teaching.

This solution from Notre Dame's Office of Student Affairs "has both surprised and excited the campus and elicited praise from the local Catholic bishop", reports the National Catholic Register.

"I believe there is a need at Catholic universities to provide pastoral care and support to persons with same-sex attraction," said Bishop Kevin Rhoades of South Bend, Indiana. "This is what Notre Dame's 'Pastoral Plan' is attempting to do.

"This pastoral care should help the students not to feel unwelcome or alienated in the community, but also help them to lead chaste and holy lives."

"I think that people, especially youth, who feel isolated or alienated can be more susceptible to destructive unchaste behavior," the bishop said. "Isolation, alienation, insecurity, etc. can lead to pleasure-seeking in sinful behaviour that ultimately brings unhappiness."

However, Bishop Rhoades cautioned that pastoral plans and support groups for homosexual students and their friends cannot take a "morally neutral" position on homosexuality.

The Notre Dame plan declares that its "goals and objectives, as well as its programs and initiatives, are consonant with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church".

It dedicates eight paragraphs to making this point, repeatedly citing passages from the Catechism of the Catholic Church dealing with marriage, sexuality, friendship and the life of chastity.

The plan repeatedly notes that the new student organisation will uphold "the challenging, even though beautiful and life-giving, call to chaste relationships" and that "Student Affairs neither condones nor supports sexual activity outside the marital relationship or any sexual activities that ‘close the sexual act to the gift of life' (CCC, 2357)."

Sources:

National Catholic Register

Text of Notre Dame pastoral plan

Image: The Blaze