Memo Date: April 10, 2017 To: Priests, Deacons, Brothers, Sisters, Parish & Chancery Staff From: Sue Stubbs, Director, Victim Assistance Program, Office of Child & Youth Protection Re: “Framing a Catholic Response to Gender Ideology” Conference
Please consider participating in an upcoming conference entitled, “Framing a Catholic Response to Gender Ideology” at Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado. They have arranged an outstanding group of presenters on this important topic.
The conference runs from Tuesday, May 16, 2017 (4:00 p.m.) until Thursday May 18, 2017 (3:30 p.m.). The cost is $150 which includes all meals (Tuesday dinner through Thursday lunch). Accommodations at a special rate are set up at the Courtyard Denver Cherry Creek. Please see the attached conference brochure and a detailed list of presenters and topics.
If you know any colleagues who would be interested in this conference, please share this invitation with them as well.
www.SJVDenver.edu/conferences
Framing a Catholic
Response to
Gender Ideology
Tuesday, May 16 (5:00pm)- Thursday, May 18 (3:30pm)
St. John Vianney Theological Seminary
1300 South Steele St. Denver, CO 80210
Gender ideology …
is having a devastating impact on children and
teens.
ignores God as Creator and promotes a view
of individual autonomy which is simply sinful.
redefines the parent-child relationship,
casting parents as “oppressing” children by
raising them as boys or girls.
undermines basic Christian anthropology by
defining the person as a disembodied mind
and the body as a mere instrument.
St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, in cooperation with the
Catholic Women’s Forum and Courage International, is proud to announce our upcoming conference:
“Framing a Catholic Response to Gender Ideology.”
The conference will explore an authentically Catholic response to gender ideology from the medical, psychological, philosophical, theological, pastoral, and legal perspectives. Aiming to serve key personnel involved in Catholic Charities, Catholic Schools, Seminary Formation, Counseling and Diocesan Staff, we will present the issues involved and discuss ways to prepare a proactive, truthful and compassionate response to gender ideology when these issues arise. We hope to equip participants to return to their dioceses and be proactive catalysts for advancing this discussion and preparing to respond to gender ideology at the diocesan level.
Cost: $150 (includes all meals) For registration and additional
information visit: http://sjvdenver.edu/conferences email:[email protected]
or call: 303-282-3427
Framing a Catholic
Response to Gender Ideology
Discount Rate for Reservations Prior to April 24 Courtyard Denver Cherry Creek
1475 S. Colorado Blvd., Denver, CO 80222 303-757-8797
www.courtyardcherrycreek.com Mention “Archdiocese of Denver May 2017”
for the group rate
The Cultural Impact of Gender Ideology: What Happened and How Did It Happen So Fast?
Mary Rice Hasson, JD Director, Catholic Women’s Forum at the Ethics and Public Policy Center
The Legal Situation in the US Helen Alvaré, JD
George Mason School of Law
The Church faces a serious challenge
from an organized and sweeping
agenda...
“Organized religion is at the heart of LGBTI oppression and needs to be deconstructed. [But] How can one
deconstruct an institution that provides hope and comfort to millions of
desperate people? ... An engagement needs to come from groups within the churches. They need capacity-building
and support…LGBTI organizations need to appropriate Christian values
for a progressive rights agenda.” --Atlantic Philanthropies 2010 report, “A
Meeting of Queer Minds”
…which Pope Francis has characterized
as “ideological colonization”:
“We are experiencing a moment of the annihilation of man as the image of God.
… In Europe, America, Latin America, Africa, and in some countries of Asia,
there are genuine forms of ideological colonization taking place. And one of these - I will call it clearly
by its name - is [the ideology of] “gender.” Today children – children! – are taught in school that everyone can
choose his or her sex. Why are they teaching this? Because the books are
provided by the persons and institutions that give you money. These forms of ideological colonization are
also supported by influential countries. And this is terrible!”
--Pope Francis, meeting with the Polish Bishops, Cathedral of Kraków: 27 July
2016
Welcoming and Accompanying Catholics with Confusion about Sexual Identity Father Philip Bochanski
Executive Director, Courage International
What Does the Science and Practice of Psychology Tell Us about Gender Identity? Suzanne Hollman, PsyD, MSc
Institute for Psychological Studies
Why is Gender Ideology Incompatible with Catholicism? Susan Selner-Wright, PhD
St. John Vianney Theological Seminary
The US and Global Situation
What Is Gender Ideology and Why Do US Dioceses Need to Be Prepared to Respond to It?
Pia de Solenni, S.T.L., S.T.D. Associate Dean, Augustine Institute, Orange County
The Emperor’s (New) New Clothes: A Look at the Logic of the (Not So) New Gender Ideology
Margaret Harper McCarthy, PhD John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, CUA
Transgender Surgery and Christian Anthropology Deacon Patrick Lappert, MD
Plastic Surgeon and Deacon of the Diocese of Birmingham
The Context
The Perspective of Medical and Psychological Science
The Philosophical and Theological Perspective
The Pastoral Perspective
1
Framing A Catholic Response to Gender Ideology
May 16-18, 2017
Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary
SPEAKERS AND PRESENTATIONS
Helen Alvaré, JD
The Legal Situation in the US
The law concerning gender in the United States is a patchwork of federal, state and local law
featuring poorly defined terms and emerging from ideology and politics versus science or
morality. This talk will outline the basics for those in the frontlines of diocesan response.
Helen Alvaré is a Professor of Law at George Mason University School
of Law, where she teaches Family Law, Law and Religion, and
Property Law. She publishes on matters concerning marriage,
parenting, non-marital households, and the First Amendment religion
clauses. She is a consultor for the Pontifical Council of the Laity, an
advisor to the USCCB, and founder of WomenSpeakforThemselves.com. She cooperates
with the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations as a speaker
and a delegate to various United Nations conferences concerning women and the family.
She is a founding member of the Catholic Women's Forum.
Father Philip Bochanski
Welcoming and Accompanying Catholics Experiencing Confusion About Sexual Identity
Our pastoral priority toward people who are experiencing confusion regarding their sexual
identity, and towards their parents and loved ones, must be to welcome them in the name of
Christ and to help them to understand and accept God's plan for their lives. This talk will
consider how "speaking the truth in love" to someone about his or her identity, vocation and
relationships can lead him or her to a greater self-understanding and fulfillment in Christ. It will
also consider the impact that the experience of confusion about sexual identity can have on the
life of the parish, and how clergy and others in ministry should respond.
Father Bochanski is a native of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
and was ordained for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 1999. In
addition to various parish assignments he served as chaplain of the
Philadelphia chapter of the Courage apostolate for five years. Father
Bochanski presently lives in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut,
where he serves as the executive director of Courage International, providing support and
assistance for local Courage chapters and their chaplains, as well as continuing formation
for priests and others in ministry. He is an award-winning author and has published
several books, articles and audio lectures on such topics as Church history, spirituality,
evangelization and pastoral care.
2
Pia de Solenni, STD
What Is Gender Ideology and Why Do US Dioceses Need to Be Prepared to Respond to It?
This talk will orient us to the current state of the phenomenon Pope Francis has called Gender
Ideology and the various forms this ideology is taking in US dioceses today.
Dr. de Solenni is a Professor of Moral Theology and Associate Dean of the
Augustine Institute in Orange County. Since earning graduate degrees in
theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, she has had
work appear in various publications including The Wall Street Journal
Europe, The Washington Post, National Catholic Reporter, Our Sunday
Visitor, Patheos, and National Review Online. She is a consulting member of the
Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas and a member of the Catholic Women’s
Forum.
Deacon Patrick Lappert, MD
Transgender Surgery and Christian Anthropology
Deacon Lappert will present a discussion of the “transgender” phenomenon, its historic roots, the
scientific evidence for the existence of such a condition, and the moral and ethical problems of
the use of medicine and surgery in the treatment of this condition.
Trained and board-certified as a general surgeon and as a plastic and
reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Lappert is a Permanent Deacon in the
Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama. He is a veteran of the Naval
Service, retiring with the rank of Captain, USN, after serving for
twenty-four years. Deacon Lappert divides his time between his private
practice of plastic surgery and serving as deacon at Annunciation of the Lord Catholic
Church in Decatur, Alabama. He is also chaplain for Courage in the Diocese of
Birmingham.
3
Suzanne Hollman, PsyD, MSc
What Does the Science and Practice of Psychology Tell Us about Gender Identity?
Through a critical review of the literature in Neuroscience and Biology, Dr. Hollman will
examine the current state of scientific controversy and consensus in this area. The conflation of
body politics with empirical research necessitates an evaluation of the state of current
experimental findings in this area. She will examine what is known about the biology,
neuroscience, psychosocial factors and potential comorbid psychopathology related to the
contentious areas of transgender issues and gender identity in children and adolescents.
Dr. Hollman holds the positions of Associate Professor, Co-Director of
the PsyD Program, and Clinical Supervisor at Divine Mercy University,
the home of the Institute for Psychological Studies. Originally from
South Africa, Dr. Hollman earned her PsyD at George Washington
University and MSc in the History of Medicine from Oxford University.
She is the author of papers on Attachment Theory, Cross-cultural psychiatry, and is a
reviewer for the Eastern European Social Science journal, Seminare. She is a member of
the Catholic Women’s Forum.
Susan Selner-Wright, PhD
Why Is Gender Ideology Incompatible with Catholicism?
Drawing on the unbroken tradition of seeing the human person as an embodied spirit, this talk
will review why the Church teaches that our bodies are as much ourselves as our souls are, that
our human nature sets boundaries for actions consistent with our flourishing, and that there is a
direct connection between the physical and the spiritual. It will also discuss how modern notions
of the body as mechanical and of freedom as autonomy have undermined these basic tenets of
our tradition.
Dr. Selner-Wright is the Archbishop Charles J Chaput Chair of
Philosophy at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver.
Her academic specialty is the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. She is
the author of the Endow study guide, Aquinas for Beginners, and of
scholarly articles published in journals including Logos and the International
Philosophical Quarterly. She is also the translator and editor of On Creation, a
translation of St. Thomas’ De potentia Dei, Q. 3, published by the Catholic University of
America Press. She is a member of the Catholic Women’s Forum.
4
Margaret Harper McCarthy, PhD
The Emperor’s (New) New Clothes: A Look at the Logic of the (Not So) New Gender Ideology
The claim of the talk is that behind the invention of the category of “gender” is the attempt to
abstract the human being from the constitutive dimension of sexual difference—namely, the
rhythm of generations, both those that have gone before and those that will follow—and
ultimately from the human (creaturely) condition itself. The talk will endeavor to offer a way to
face this new challenge.
Dr. McCarthy is an Assistant Professor of Theological Anthropology at
the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The
Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC. She is the editor of
its online quarterly review, Humanum, and also publishes regularly in the
international Catholic review Communio. Her book Recovering Origins:
Adult Children of Divorce is forthcoming. Dr. McCarthy is a member of the Catholic
Women’s Forum.
Mary Rice Hasson, JD
The Cultural Impact of Gender Ideology: What Happened and How Did It Happen So Fast?
This talk provides an overview of gender ideology's impact on the culture, both globally and in
the U.S., with particular attention to the ideology's inroads into education, health care and
business. It suggests important ways individuals and institutions can respond, with compassion
and conviction.
A fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. where
she directs the Catholic Women’s Forum, Mrs. Hasson leads the CWF’s
Gender Project, which provides workshops and presentations on gender
ideology, transgender issues, feminism, and Catholic anthropology to
Catholic clergy, diocesan and parish staff, educators, apostolic leaders, and
parents. An attorney and writer, Mary is the editor of Promise and Challenge: Catholic
Women Reflect on Feminism, Complementarity, and the Church (Our Sunday Visitor:
2015) and co-author of the report What Catholic Women Think About Faith, Conscience,
and Contraception (EPPC, 2012). Her work has appeared in The Federalist, Our Sunday
Visitor, The Washington Examiner, and First Things, as well as in policy journals and
scholarly publications.