The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home. Whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.”
— Pope Francis, fresh off making comments on the sanctity of marriage, used his encyclical on the environment to stress the importance of gender differences — a not-so subtle jab at transgender rights. His Holiness has a checkered history with LGBT issues, reportedly meeting with a trans man earlier this year just before comments he had made comparing trans people to nuclear weapons became public.
Les Fabian Brathwaite — just like a queer, no choice your voice can take me there.
h/t: GayStarNews
notevenwrong
I am not a fan of the Church but I don’t see how this is anti-trans.
Is this the best you can come up with on the day his very important and progressive environmental encyclical came out?
Luis Collazo
Wasn’t this the same idiot who the gays were ass kissing just a few months ago. I knew he was no different just took time to see what he’s really all about!
Ed Hamtil
Why is he the only religious leader to be quoted?
Tressert
I guess you could take it that way, but that’s not how I read it. I heard “This is the body God gave you and the only one you’re going to get. Accept yourself for who you are, regardless of how masculine or feminine you are. How can you love other people if you don’t lve yourself?” I suppose it could be taken as a jab against transgender, but if it weren’t coming from the Church that wouldn’t be my first assumption.
JessPH
The Catholic Church do not believe in this ‘gender identity’ thing. The Pope is merely doing his job of perpetuating the Church’s transphobic dogma. So, THIS IS NOT REALLY NEWS and Queerty should publish more relevant stories instead.
Mark Stevenson
Its always something. Why can’t these religious people keep their mouths closed? If people would just mind their own genitalia then things would be better over all or should it be under all?
victoriadeoro
How is that different from cutting your hair or shaving?
victoriadeoro
If we had to accept us as we are, we shouldn’t even take showers, I don’t know…. I remember one episode of Bones, were a transgender woman got killed, and her ex-wife said some transphobic things, and Deschanel’s character said some good answers.
1EqualityUSA
Staving off a female-to-male wanting to become a priest?
Kangol
This doesn’t sound anti-trans to me either. In fact, he’s seems to be clearly saying that “sexual difference,” which would include queerness and transness, should be respected.
Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.”
He does not say that men have to be masculine, or women have to be feminine, but rather that a specific person’s body may be whatever it is, and we should not “cancel out sexual difference.” No?
sweven
I like this guy. I think he is doing the best he can to show respect, acceptance and love towards the LGTBQ community. We have to understand he is fighting a terrible battle inside the church, I can sense how he is trying to resolve the tension in the best most intelligent fashion. He was not absolute in his comment, rather he was conciliatory an it is clear to me he was sending and encoded message to us.
I like this guy. I think he is doing the best he can to show respect, acceptance and love towards the LGBTQ community. We have to understand he is fighting a terrible battle inside the church, I can sense how he is trying to resolve the tension in the best most intelligent fashion. He was not absolute in his comment, rather he was conciliatory and it is clear to me he was sending an encoded message to us.
As I read it I understand he said that transgender should be accepting and loving their bodies in such a way that they can be their true self. “Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning…”. The code word here seems to me is “meaning”.
So if my body’s true meaning is female then I should be able to accept and love it and live according to that meaning .
Avery Alvarez
I don’t like this guy. He is nothing but the PR pope. Business has been the same as usual under him. Probably the biggest laugh of all is the fact that the Advocate named him “person of the year”, based of one quote. Afterwards, he immediately started denouncing GLBT and our rights around the world, and attack us with the same hatred as his predecessor.
He has not shown respect, or love, or acceptance towards the GLBT community.
Ken Spragg
I’ve appreciated his unexpectedly humanistic/progressive stance on a number of issues but clearly he still needs some work. From “who am I to judge” to this? Lame. Yo, Frank, who are *you* to judge how other people should feel about *their* bodies? 😛
Giancarlo85
Some of the transphobic douches on here would agree with the Pope. They can’t stand trans people. This Pope has a nefarious past.
Check out the Pope’s ties to the late former dictator Rafael Videla.
http://www.globalpost.com/sites/default/files/styles/synphoto/public/photos/2013-March/new-pope-francis-argentina-videla.jpg?itok=HC1sSND8
This is the Pope with Argentine dictator Videla.
http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2013/03/15/siete-things-to-know-pope-francis-argentina-s-dirty-war/jcr:content/image.crop.800.500.jpg/1363439288918.cached.jpg
There were enormous human rights abuses during the Videla dictatorship, who is considered worse than Pinochet’s regime. And the Pope had close ties to Videla.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/15/siete-things-to-know-pope-francis-argentina-s-dirty-war.html
jwtraveler
Clearly nobody knows what he’s talking about. I don’t care.
Oli1023
This is anti-trans because he objected to “cancelling out our inherent masculinities and femininity”. Remember, the transgender community also includes non-binary and genderqueer people.
Giancarlo85
I wonder where MASK PRIDE, LauraLAZY and other anti-trans people are at? They should be here cheering on the pope!
Bisexual-Transwoman
@Avery Alvarez: Well said. http://www.latinorebels.com/2013/03/13/pope-francis-i-and-argentinas-dirty-war/