Dr Randall (pictured), who preached at Trent College in Nottingham, has been barred from preaching for five years. This is despite being cleared of wrongdoing by secular bodies.

Rev. Randall, 52, delivered a sermon in 2019 encouraging students to question the teaching on LGBT relationships. This led to his dismissal from Trent College. Although reinstated, the Bishop of Derby, Right Reverend Libby Lane, barred him from preaching. Lane cited safeguarding concerns in her reasoning.

The Church of England labelled Dr Randall a risk to children despite acknowledging that his sermon did not conflict with Anglican doctrine.

A review of the case by Gregory Jones KC on behalf of the clergy discipline tribunal found that the Church's handling of the matter was "egregious" and that Archbishop Welby's decision to block Dr Randall's misconduct case against Bishop Lane was "plainly wrong".

Jones highlighted that the archbishop failed to provide sufficient evidence for the safeguarding concerns cited for denying Dr Randall's licence to preach.

Safeguarding "weaponised"

Dr Randall, who previously served as a chaplain at Cambridge University, has voiced his frustration. He suggested that safeguarding had been "weaponised as a political tool against a theological position which is wholly consistent with the Church's doctrine."

Randall remains unable to secure another position due to the continued refusal by Bishop Lane to grant him a licence or permission to officiate, pending a risk assessment.

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre which supports Dr Randall, criticised the Diocese of Derby's approach. She asserted that no evidence had been presented to justify the claims that Dr Randall posed a danger to children.

Williams described the situation as a "scandalous blacklisting" for beliefs rooted in biblical teachings.

The Church of England and the Diocese of Derby have declined to comment on the ongoing gender-critical legal case.

Dr Randall is now seeking a judicial review of the case. He argues that the Church's actions represent a broader issue of departing from its teachings.

Sources

MSN

Christian Today

CathNews New Zealand

With the legal support of ADF International, the Querétaro Diocese successfully fended off a demand from the Mexican National Institute for Data Protection to alter church records according to a transgender-identifying individual's self-identification.

The transgender-identifying claimant first filed a petition against the Querétaro Catholic Diocese in 2021, following a demand for the church to change the registered name and male sex on the particular baptismal records, which the church denied.

The complainant held that, under Mexican data protection law, the church must submit to the demand, regardless of biological fact and historical accuracy.

Read More

The discussion, organised by the Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture, delved into topics surrounding gender theory's perceived threat to Christian values and family structures.

Notable figures in attendance included Cardinals Virgilio Do Carmo da Silva (Timor-Leste), Oswald Gracias (India), William Goh (Singapore) and Patrick D'Rozario (Bangladesh).

Among the European cardinals were Willem Eijk (Netherlands), Angelo Bagnasco (Italy) and Dominik Duka (Czech Republic). Also joining them were several African and American prelates including Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone (San Francisco, USA).

Despite attempts to keep discussion of gender ideology under wraps, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja (Nigeria) inadvertently revealed details on his Facebook page.

The programme, not publicly disclosed by the Austin Institute, included talks by prominent figures such as Robert Gahl, a priest of Opus Dei and Cardinal Willem Eijk of Utrecht who cautioned against the implications of gender theory on family and faith.

The Austin Institute's president, Mark Regnerus, confirmed its role in organising and sponsoring the event, describing it as an "intellectual retreat".

However, details regarding funding sources and participant selection remained undisclosed.

Same-sex blessings controversy

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Italian magazine Credere, Pope Francis addressed the controversy surrounding blessings for same-sex couples. Emphasising the importance of respecting all individuals, the pontiff clarified "I don't bless a ‘homosexual marriage,' I bless two people who love each other."

His remarks shed light on the pastoral approach outlined in the document "Fiducia Supplicans," permitting informal blessings for gay couples without endorsing their union.

Despite criticism and societal expectations, Pope Francis reaffirmed his commitment to extending blessings to all, regardless of their circumstances.

Sources

La Croix International

America Magazine

CathNews New Zealand

Verástegui, producer of the box office hit "Sound of Freedom," which exposes child sex trafficking, must gather almost 1 million signatures by early January to get on the 2024 ballot.

Gender ideology holds that biological sex does not determine one's gender and that people can define their sexual orientation and identity according to their preferences and even contrary to biological reality.

"Let it be very clear. If they give me the opportunity to be president of Mexico, I will not allow the entire LGBT+ alphabet to continue contaminating our nation. I don't want Mexican children sexualised and indoctrinated in schools with books that promote gender ideology," the Mexican actor wrote.

Read More

For decades the Catholic right referred to the positions of Popes St John Paul II and Benedict XVI; now the Catholic left points to Pope Francis' pronouncements on everything from climate change to LGBTQ inclusion.

The strategy has been ramping up of late as October's Synod on Synodality, a meeting of the world's bishops on the church's future, approaches.

Critiques about how the synod is being used to push radical change in developed nations are rebuffed as dissent over the Holy Father's synodal process, with virtually no attention paid to how such changes would affect marginalised Catholic communities in the Global South.

But the jockeying ahead of the synod is only part of a broader claim by the left, long accused of picking and choosing among church teachings according to their taste, that the Catholic right are the real cafeteria Catholics.

Call out one of the left's favourite cardinals for his public statements on LGBTQ issues?

You're implicitly defying Francis, who appointed the prelate, and the pope's social justice agenda! Defend the church's ban on contraception by pointing out its harmful health effects on women?

Ugh, can't you see Francis wants to end the church's obsession with pelvic issues?

Most egregiously, these folks tend to invoke Francis when it is convenient and ignore him even when he has strongly and clearly laid out his views contradicting their agenda.

We've seen this political and theological whiplash time and again with Francis' views on abortion, which he calls akin to a white glove Nazi crime or hiring a hitman.

Some on the left genuinely wrestle with the fullness of what the Holy Father is teaching, but the majority refuse to subject themselves to his authority on this issue.

The same is true of the Holy Father's views on gender.

Francis has characteristically made pastoral care of people with gender dysphoria a priority, and he is rightly concerned about their health and well-being.

He has not sacrificed the truth in doing so.

He has called gender ideology "evil" and a contemporary example of colonization.

In his apostolic exhortations Laudato Si' and Amoris Laetitia, he compares it to the error of imagining ourselves as masters of the divinely created and ordered ecological world.

But is anyone taking Pope Francis' teaching on these matters seriously?

Many of those on the Catholic right, who are basically waiting for this papacy to be over, take little he says to heart.

And despite their insistence that their political opponents be bound by his teaching, those on the Catholic left are themselves likely taking a pass on this particular line of thought.

This hasn't stopped a wide range of ideologically diverse bishops from accepting it.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago — not exactly two peas in a pod — wrote a joint essay in America magazine insisting that Catholic hospitals must be permitted to affirm Francis' views when it comes to caring for persons with gender dysphoria.

"Does objecting to performing gender transition procedures — but welcoming patients who identify as transgender — constitute discrimination?"

The two cardinals spoke with one voice: "Of course not."

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Doctrine, led by Bishop Daniel Flores, pastor of the border city of Brownsville, Texas, recently issued a doctrinal note on "The Moral Limits of Technological Manipulation of the Human Body," in which he defended the fixed male-female binary of the human body.

This relatively brief document invokes Francis' teaching throughout and cites him six times.

Flores is an outspoken advocate of the church's teaching on immigration and is respected across the ideological spectrum.

His doctrinal note would almost certainly not have been published if it didn't have the approval of Rome.

It's difficult to dismiss it as a mere product of a right-wing US bishop — any more than a similar document issued by the Nordic bishops days later.

In it they "declare dissent" from an ideological movement that "puts forward a view of human nature that abstracts from the embodied integrity of personhood, as if physical gender were accidental."

Can the Catholic left honour their stated commitment to the authority of the Holy Father by declaring a similar kind of dissent from the orthodoxy of their political circles?

No one is talking about something other than genuine care for people awash in the evil of gender ideology, especially children.

Getting on the side of a child in this context doesn't mean affirming gender dysphoria but rather loving them through what's called "watchful waiting."

There's more than theology in this approach.

Most kids (around 80%) grow out of childhood-onset gender dysphoria by adulthood.

A non-medical approach is clearly the way to go as we find the best ways to work for the good of our children.

But Catholics who honour the teaching of Pope Francis would go a long way to stopping the whiplash effect by taking all his teachings seriously.

It would reduce the atmosphere of cynicism and mutual distrust as we head into the synod. And that will be good for everyone.

• Charles Camosy, though a native of very rural Wisconsin, has spent more than the last decade as a professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University. He is the author of five books, including, most recently, "Resisting Throwaway Culture." He is the father of four children, three of whom were adopted from the Philippines.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

The march was organized after the territory's Governor Pedro Pierluisi issued an executive order implementing an updated version of the "Gender Perspective curriculum" in public schools.

The curriculum was created by the administration of former governor Alejandro García Padilla. The people of Puerto Rico stopped its implementation through public marches in 2015.

Mario Rosario, the president of the Pro Life and Family Coalition, who organized the march, said that there was "spectacular unity between Protestants, Catholics and non-religious people embracing the family and childhood."

"We're happy because we believe that the goal was achieved. Our voice was heard so that the word 'gender' is eliminated from any educational proposal for our children. And from any political effort they would try to implement," he added.

The pro-family leader said that 25,000 to 30,000 people had come to participate in the two-hour-long demonstration.

Following speeches by religious and lay leaders, the protesters walked peacefully to La Fortaleza, the governor's residence.

One of the speakers, Dr Angie González, the spokeswoman for Women for Puerto Rico, said, "today's march was the expression of an outraged people at the dictatorial government of Governor Pedro Pierluisi."

"In Puerto Rico in the past decade, the governors have assumed a totalitarian style of governance. Today's march represents the uprising of a people that's not willing to allow their rights to be violated. Above all, it shows the commitment of thousands of parents and grandparents that we are not going to hand over our children to gender ideology," she said.

"The teaching of gender ideology violates our constitution, violates parental rights and affects the psychosexual development of children," she added.

She said the same day of the march, they turned in "the more than 129,000 signatures collected in the past five weeks opposing the teaching of gender ideology in the country's public schools."

However, she was disappointed Governor Pierluisi did not attend to hear the complaints. Instead, he sent an aide to the Secretary of the Interior.

"The Pro Life and Family Coalition members gave our proposals to the aide who received us. We asked him to communicate to the governor that we want to personally meet with him," González said.

For González the march had a significant effect.

"First of all, it shows our leaders how numerous the people with values are and how much they oppose the imposition of gender ideology. Secondly, it lets the people see how the press has sold out to this ideology and is determined to impose a news blackout on our demands because there wasn't a single secular media reporting on the march. Thirdly, the march has increased public awareness that people are mobilizing to participate in this fight," she noted.

González also said "if our claims are not addressed, we will continue with the other strategies that we are developing."

Sources

Catholic News Agency

Ondequando

The Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta (CEDP) split from Catholic Schools NSW, the statewide body, over its opposition to Mark Latham's anti-trans education bill.

Although later superseded by a subsequent submission, in its submission into an inquiry into the bill to parliament, the CEDP described Latham's proposal as "counter to promoting and respecting the human dignity of all."

It is "an unacceptable incursion into the professional judgement of Catholic schools and school systems," the CEDP wrote.

Reacting to CEDPs views in the submission, some priests and parents in the diocese accused Parramatta's bishop, Vincent Long Van Nguyen, of "heresy."

They called on him and CEDP boss Greg Whitby to resign.

Long then overruled Whitby in a new submission which he said "superseded" the CEDPs contribution.

The Parramatta diocese "affirms the prohibition of teaching gender ideology (gender fluidity) in an educational setting". He added that he had "serious concerns, echoing Pope Francis, about this ideology," Long wrote.

He then cited the Catholic position on gender theory set out by the Vatican in Male and Female He Created Them.

"The young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created," Long quoted from the paper

Without explicitly supporting or opposing the bill, Long said it must not "prohibit a school from supporting children who are already at risk of marginalisation because of gender identity issues."

The diocese "strongly affirms the Catholic teaching that parents are the primary educators of their children in matters of faith and education," he said.

The about-face followed Long's letter to parishioners and parents on April 27 in which he assured them the earlier decision to oppose the bill was guided by Catholic teaching.

"I emphatically reject the notion of gender ideology," he wrote.

"What I advocate for is a compassionate, respectful, inclusive, Gospel-centred learning environment and a deep commitment to the wellbeing of all students, particularly those at risk.

"Their lives must not be made more intolerable by unjust laws such as elements of the ‘Latham' Bill that I have articulated above."

The Parramatta Catholic diocese includes 80 schools, 43,000 students and 5000 staff. Priests leading the backlash included one - Father John Rizzo, who urged Long to resign.

"Your stance regarding homosexuality is at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church," Rizzo wrote.

"Your zealous approach to ‘inclusivity' towards the LGBTQI community is very confusing to Catholics wanting to be faithful to the church."

Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney, supported the backlash against discussion of gender diversity in schools and welcomed Long's new submission.

"[We] look forward to engaging with Mr Latham's inquiry further on this matter now that we have the benefit of a more aligned position," he said.

Source

• Brisbane Times
• Image: Catholic Outlook

After fact-checking, Newsweek says John is correct. The Vatican invested about 1 million euros in Rocketman. Read More

He cited personal and religious beliefs for not wanting to wrestle a girl. Continue reading

Stop transgender teaching in New Zealand schools was published on January 29 and has garnered 31,190 signatures as of last Wednesday evening.

The petition request: That the House of Representatives urge the Ministry of Education to remove learning intentions for teaching gender diversity in the sexuality education guide and to remove the gender diversity teaching resources on the Te Kete Ipurangi website.

The reason the petitioner, Helene Houghton, offers for her request is that she believes "that teachers are already required to create a safe environment for all students regardless of race, religion, language, disability and sexuality".

They do not have a separate requirement to teach the content of minority groups in the curriculum, therefore why should there be a new expectation to include the teaching of gender diversity.

Houghton believes that endorsing gender discordance as normal via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents.

Last year the Catholic National Centre for Religious Studies released a document that provides Catholic schools with guidance about how to navigate issues pertaining to gender diversity among young people today.

Gender Complexity in Schools, which is endorsed by the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, acknowledged that gender dysphoria is real.

A statement released by the NZCBC explained that the document provides a point of reference for schools in the support and accompaniment of children and young people "who may be experiencing gender dysphoria in our schools".

Ellen MacGregor-Reid from the Ministry of Education told 1 NEWS: "Effective education in this area can equip students with the skills, attitudes and understanding necessary to support positive environments and relationships for themselves and their peers - including those with diverse cultures, genders or sexuality".

Source

• newshub.co.nz
• parliament.nz
• nzcatholic.org.nz
• tvnz.co.nz
• Image insidehr.com.au

But critics said it reinforces gender binary stereotypes.

There have been a variety of reactions. Here are some of them.

Nichols says children will find their "greatest joy" by accepting their biological sex rather than selecting a gender of their choice.

They are not "single, self-determining individuals," Nichols told the teachers.

"At a time of great confusion about the rules of sexual behaviour, about exploitation and abuse in every part of society, some firm points of reference that are already built into our humanity at its best are of vital importance."

He said Catholic moral teaching in areas of friendship, relationships, family life and human sexuality rested on the foundations of the church's vision of common humanity rather than on individualism.

These foundations are important in today's world, he added.

Nichols told the teachers their students need help to develop a sense of justice grounded in an "innate understanding of human nature and its dignity," not ideology.

"The Christian faith, more than any other, takes the reality of sin seriously, not pretending that we live in a utopia or on a pathway of endless progress, but rather in a world marked by limitations and distortions."

His comments followed a briefing paper by the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in response to Scottish proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

The Centre is an academic institute serving the Catholic Church in the UK and Ireland.

The reforms, which are likely to be copied later this year in England and Wales, will permit any person to change their gender by law simply by self-declaration.

If passed into law, the reforms would remove legal provisions involving assessments for "gender dysphoria" undertaken by doctors over a period of at least two years.

The proposals envisage the right of children to self-declare into a new gender at age 16 when they cease to be minors.

Younger children will also be able to change their gender without parental consent if they appeal to the courts.

The transgender advocacy group, TG Pals, said Nichols's remarks were "not helpful" and "a religious bias should not have any impact on a transgender child's needs".

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales will consider its response to transgender issues next month.

Source

• Catholic Philly
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: St Ethelburga's