Summary
1 Definitions of gender and sexual orientation
2 Gender: between studies and ideology
3 Discrimination and its confrontation
4 Judith Butler and the controversy over gender
5 Gestures and words of Pope Francis
6 Between good and bad paths to follow
References
1 Definitions of gender and sexual orientation
Traditionally, gender is defined as what identifies and differentiates men and women. It is synonymous with sex, referring to what is characteristic of the male sex, as well as the female. However, from the perspective of social sciences and psychology, gender is understood as what socially differentiates people, considering historical-cultural patterns attributed to men and women.
In recent decades, gender studies have also been related to sexual orientation. Not infrequently, they serve as the basis for notable sociopolitical activism and the implementation of public policies. These are research and reflections that highlight the role of culture and social structures in the configuration and relationship between genders, question the subordination of one gender to another, and contemplate the reality of the LGBT+ population, which has recently gained wide visibility.
The acronym LGBT+ refers to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transvestites, transsexuals, and others. For clarification of some terms, transvestites are people who live in female roles but do not recognize themselves as men or women. The term should always be used in the feminine: the transvestites. Transsexuals, on the other hand, are people who do not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth, but with the other sex. There can be transsexual men, who claim social and legal recognition as men, and transsexual women, who claim social and legal recognition as women. Both transvestites and transsexuals are transgender (or simply trans), that is, people who do not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth. The opposite of transgender is cisgender, which refers to people identified with the sex assigned to them at birth (JESUS, 2012, p.14).
An international convention established principles for the application of legislation on human rights concerning sexual orientation and gender identity. These are the so-called Yogyakarta Principles, whose definitions have been widely accepted even by Brazilian legislation. It is considered:
I – Sexual orientation “as a reference to each person’s ability to have a deep emotional, affectionate, or sexual attraction to individuals of a different gender, the same gender, or more than one gender, as well as having intimate and sexual relations with these individuals,” and
II – Gender identity as
the deeply felt, internal, and individual experience of each person’s gender, which may or may not correspond to the sex assigned at birth, including the personal sense of the body (which may involve, by free choice, modifying the appearance or body function through medical, surgical, or other means) and other gender expressions, including clothing, speech, and mannerisms (Resolution, 2014, Art. 1).
With this classification, lesbians, gays, homosexuals, bisexuals, or heterosexuals are concepts that refer to sexual orientation. In turn, transvestites, transsexuals, transgender, and cisgender refer to gender identity. Many, however, do not accept such a classification. They argue that sexual orientation does not define the person and that homosexual inclination can be a transient tendency. Therefore, they simply speak of same-sex attraction. In Catholic environments, it is not uncommon for those who have this attraction to be referred to “healing and deliverance prayer” to eliminate it or, at least, to live in sexual continence. Some evangelical churches regularly perform exorcism of homosexuals and transgender individuals. There are countries and provinces where conversion therapies for homosexual orientation and gender identity are still allowed, to which these individuals are subjected.
2 Gender: between studies and ideology
In a public address, Pope Francis spoke about family and the concern that gender studies bring to him. According to the Judeo-Christian tradition, the family institution is a great gift that God gave to humanity, creating human beings as male and female and instituting the sacrament of marriage. Sexual difference is present in various forms of life, but only in men and women does this difference bring the divine image and likeness. Its purpose is not opposition or subordination but communion and generation. Human beings need the reciprocity between man and woman to know themselves well and grow harmoniously.
Recently, the pope continues, culture has opened new spaces, freedoms, and depths that enrich the understanding of this difference, but it has also brought many doubts and much skepticism. And he posed this question: “I wonder if the so-called gender theory is not also an expression of frustration and resignation, which seeks to cancel sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it” (FRANCISCO, 2015b). For him, there is a risk of taking a step backward. The removal of the difference would be truly the problem, not the solution.
The pope’s reservations about gender studies reflect the manifestations of the high Catholic hierarchy in this regard in recent decades. There is a set of propositions considered unacceptable, for which the expression “gender ideology” has been coined. The Synod of Bishops on the Family reiterated this opposition, ratified by the pope in his Post-Synodal Exhortation on the family institution. It is stated that this ideology:
(…) denies the natural difference and reciprocity of man and woman. It foresees a society without sex differences and empties the anthropological basis of the family. This ideology leads to educational projects and legislative guidelines that promote a personal identity and affective intimacy radically disconnected from the biological diversity between man and woman. Human identity is determined by an individualistic choice, which also changes over time. There is concern that some ideologies of this type, which seek to respond to certain sometimes understandable aspirations, try to impose themselves as a single thought that even determines the education of children. It should not be forgotten that biological sex (sex) and the socio-cultural function of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated (AL n.56).
This set of propositions called gender ideology is not defended by a specific author but rather a grouping of statements considered unacceptable, coming from more than one author. Something similar happened with the condemnation of modernism, made by the high Catholic hierarchy at the beginning of the 20th century. There was no author who, at the same time, defended all the propositions then condemned under the title of modernism.
In fact, gender studies are known in English as gender theory, commonly translated as gender theory. But in this case, theory is not an appropriate translation because these studies are quite heterogeneous. There is no unifying and comprehensive explanation, as is the case with a theory. What exists is a general agreement to consider complex behaviors, directly or indirectly linked to the sexual sphere, as the result of different, not entirely independent, and, in turn, complex dimensions: anatomical sex, self-recognition as a man or woman, gender role, and sexual orientation. There is not always a necessary coherence between the sex assigned at birth, the recognition and experience of one’s identity as a man or woman, desire, and sexual practice. The different identities that make up the LGBT+ acronym show this and express the complex diversity between man and woman. This is the common denominator of gender studies. Therefore, since there is no proper theory, it is appropriate to speak of studies. It should not be assumed that all people are cisgender and heterosexual, as in the binary model where there is only man and woman without further specifications.
And the various forms of discrimination and violence that oppress and devastate the LGBT+ population should not be ignored either.
Regarding the suspicions about gender ideology, it is worth considering that there is neuroscience research indicating that the biology of sexuality is not limited to the genitalia and anatomy. The brain plays an important role in gender identity and sexual orientation. In the case of transgender people, the brain and self-perception do not correspond to the genitalia and the rest of the body. The person feels like a man in a woman’s body or a woman in a man’s body. Regarding sexual orientation, there are odors related to masculinity and femininity, pheromones, which, when inhaled, are identified by the brain and influence perception and behavior. In the animal world, these odors are fundamental in the approach between sexes and mating. Specialized scans reveal that the brains of homosexual women respond to pheromones differently from the brains of heterosexual women and similarly to those of heterosexual men. In other words, both homosexual women and heterosexual men are attracted to other women. Similar experiments with homosexual men reached opposite and symmetrical results. The brains of these men respond to pheromones differently from the brains of heterosexual men and similarly to those of heterosexual women. In other words, homosexual men and heterosexual women are attracted to other men (HERCULANO-HUZEL, 2006, p.46-51). Even though there are also psychosocial factors affecting this reality, being LGBT+ is not a choice or an individualistic option.
In gender studies, there are also perspectives situated within the Christian theological horizon. Giannino Piana, for example, proposes not to renounce the difference between man and woman and their fundamental importance, which is rooted in anatomical sex and constitutes the archetype from which humanity originates. That social and cultural processes are highlighted without entirely disregarding the biological component, the genetic and neuronal structure of the human subject. However, that the role of culture and social structures is also considered, recognizing the merit of gender studies in capturing the relevance of personal experiences in defining gender identity (PIANA, 2014). This contributes to overcoming prejudices that cause severe discriminations, which have led and still lead to the marginalization of LGBT+ people.
The position of the Catholic Church, according to Piana, has been characterized by a radical defense of the biological given, inserting it into the order of creation. Not infrequently, the Church has considered criticism of this data as an attack on divine sovereignty. This position cannot deny an aspect of truth: the commitment to defending the human basis, which would be severely compromised by the radical deconstruction of biological identity. But this should not mean refusal to reflect on human nature and natural law, which for a long time assumed rigidly physical-biological connotations. The history of Christian thought brings valuable contributions.
Thomas Aquinas, a scholastic theologian, clearly states that the concepts of nature and natural law are only applied to human beings analogically. They have a dual nature: as an animal, which is common to other animals; and as a man, which is proper to man, insofar as, according to reason, he distinguishes the base from the honest. Such nature is natura ut ratio (nature as reason), with reason being the qualifying element (AQUINO, book V, lesson 12, n.1019). Today it would be called culture. This introduces the possibility of intervention on natural dynamics. Thus, a vision of Patristic thought inherited from Platonic dualism and Stoic naturalism, which had introduced an absolutist and static position into Christian morality, was overcome. Scholasticism introduced attention to the cultural factor, the dynamic and evolutionary aspect.
Gender studies, Piana concludes, are a significant provocation to become aware of the richness of the human, to think of identity from a greater awareness of oneself and one’s own freedom, considering the importance of subjective decisions and personal lifestyles. This avoids forms of flattening reality around universalist paradigms that do not respect individual diversities. Ethics, including its Christian-inspired aspect, must be attentive to this new interpretation of the human world and base its guidelines on broader foundations, taking into account the complex dynamics that govern the construction of behaviors, linked to structural and cultural processes of the society in which one is immersed (PIANA, 2014).
3 Discrimination and its confrontation
In the education of children and young people, there is a point of convergence between the Catholic Church and those who defend LGBT+ people. It is the alert against bullying: the practice of intentional and repeated acts of physical or verbal violence against a defenseless person, which can cause physical and psychological harm, whether in the school or family environment. The school should be a place of inclusion and healthy plurality, educating for active and responsible citizenship in which each person is respected in their different and peculiar condition. That no one is a victim of violence, insults, and discrimination (CEC, 2019, n.16; CNBB, 2019, p.24). British Catholic bishops produced and disseminated a good manual for addressing homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic bullying in schools in their dioceses (CES, 2017). This is very important, as LGBT+ children and young people are often harshly oppressed. It is not uncommon for school and even the family itself to become a hell for them.
In the family environment, it is worth noting that these acts of verbal and physical violence are part of the aversion present in society, with strong echoes in the school. There are parents who say: “I prefer a dead son to a gay son!” There are mothers who say: “I prefer a prostitute daughter to a lesbian daughter!” It is not uncommon for trans, gay, and lesbian individuals to be expelled from home by their parents. Among the most offensive swear words in Portuguese, there is a reference to the homosexual condition (faggot!) and anal sex, common in male homoeroticism. In other words, it is an insult. Often, when it is said: “so-and-so is not a man,” it is understood that he is gay; or “so-and-so is not a woman,” that she is a lesbian. In other words, being a man or a woman supposedly excludes the homosexual person. This aversion is deeply rooted in the culture and has determining consequences in these people’s lives.
UN and human rights organizations’ reports show that in many countries, homicides are very frequent, especially of trans people. Many of them dropped out of school early because of bullying and, for lack of options in the job market, were pushed into prostitution. These homicides are often committed with extreme cruelty. There are also suicides of many adolescents who discover they are LGBT, and even of adults. They resort to this extreme attitude because they feel hostility from their own family, school, and society. It is estimated that the suicide rate in this population is, on average, five times higher than in the rest. All this hostility, with numerous forms of discrimination, even when it does not lead to death, often brings deep sadness or depression.
In addressing violence and discrimination, the state also has an essential role. In Brazil, the federal government determined that police reports issued by the authorities include the items “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and “social name.” And the social name is considered to be the one by which transvestites and transsexuals identify themselves and are identified by society. The reason given is the need to give visibility to violent crimes against the LGBT population (Resolution No. 11, 2014), thus favoring actions and public policies to address them.
The Ministry of Education (MEC) established that, in the elaboration and implementation of curricular proposals and pedagogical projects, educational systems and basic education schools must ensure guidelines and practices with the aim of “combating any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity” (MEC, 2018, Art. 1º) of students, teachers, managers, employees, and their families. The goal is to prevent school dropout resulting from cases of discrimination, harassment, and violence in schools, as this dropout constitutes a serious attack on the right to education (MEC, 2018). Added to this is the decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to criminalize homophobic and transphobic behaviors, which involve hateful aversion to someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, framing them under the Racism Law (STF, 2019).
Regarding these forms of discrimination and hatred, it is worth reflecting on the position of the Holy See at the United Nations in 2008, when France proposed the decriminalization of homosexuality worldwide. The proposal included an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Holy See delegation
at the UN expressed appreciation for the French proposal to condemn all forms of violence against homosexual people and urged States, including Muslim ones, to take the necessary measures to end all criminal penalties against them (INTERVENTION, 2008). For the Catholic Church, based on a “healthy secularity of the State,” consensual sexual relations between adults should not be considered a crime by civil authorities. However, the end of discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation was not accepted by it. It was argued that this could become an instrument of pressure against those who consider homosexual behavior morally unacceptable, do not recognize homosexual union as a family, nor its equivalence to heterosexual union, nor its right to adoption and assisted reproduction (DIFESA, 2008).
For a healthy secularity of the State, which is valued by the Catholic Church, it is then necessary to consider the scope and implications of current legislation on sexual orientation and gender identity. Is the accusation of gender ideology pertinent? The resolution on police reports aims to give visibility to certain crimes to better address them. The MEC resolution aims to prevent bullying and school dropout. The STF decision clarifies in the ruling itself that it “does not reach or restrict or limit the exercise of religious freedom.” Believers and ministers are assured the right to preach and disseminate, as well as to teach according to their doctrinal or theological orientation, “as long as such manifestations do not constitute hate speech, understood as those expressions that incite discrimination, hostility, or violence against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity” (STF, 2019). Therefore, such legislation is not an instrument of pressure against the right of churches or religious denominations to peacefully teach about sexuality, marriage, and family, but it is a way to defend vulnerable people who are often humiliated, ostracized, and even massacred. The accusation of gender ideology does not apply here.
4 Judith Butler and the controversy over gender
When talking about defenders of gender ideology, especially in well-represented Catholic institutions, the philosopher Judith Butler is often cited for proposing a “variable construction of identity.” One of her most controversial statements is that there is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender. This identity is performatively constituted through the expressions taken as its results. At this point, she bases herself on Nietzsche’s assumption that there is no being behind the doing, the performing, and the becoming. The doer is a mere fiction added to the deed. That is everything. For her, gender is an anti-substantialist concept aimed at defeating the metaphysics of identity (CNBB, 2019, p.17-18; BUTLER, 2008, p.47-48).
As questionable as these positions may be, her thought is not limited to this. Butler also stated that it is not necessary to imagine a future where the binary norm—in which everyone is necessarily heterosexual and cisgender—has dissolved, because this has already happened in some way. The challenge for her is to find a better vocabulary for ways of living gender and sexuality that do not fit so easily into the binary norm. It is necessary to issue the word in which the existing complexity can be recognized, where the fear of marginalization, pathologization, and violence is radically eliminated. And she ventures to say that perhaps it is not so important to produce new gender formulations, but rather to build a world where people can live and breathe within their own sexuality and gender (BUTLER, 2009). Her thought is under construction. At one point, she resorted to Nietzsche and an anti-metaphysical perspective, but that is not all.
She acknowledges the complexity of gender, involving nature, culture, and the individual, without irreconcilable taxative positions with Christian-inspired anthropology:
There are hormonal, physiological differences between men and women, in chromosomes. But although we work with binary thinking, there are variations, a continuum between one and the other. Research shows that biology is not determinism, that gender results from a unique combination in each of us of biological, sexual factors, social function, self-understanding, gender representation. It was discovered that hormones are interactive, and there are several ways in which they can be activated. Even the development of neurons is linked to the environment. What happens depends in part on the life one lives (CASTILHO, 2015).
Butler’s thought does not reject innate elements that permeate the reality of gender in people and their self-perception but is very careful to capture the specificity of those who, for some reason, do not fit into the binary model:
One can debate which aspects of gender are innate or acquired, but it is more important to recognize the involuntary effect of gender designation and the deeply entrenched resistance [of some] to such designation. (…) I accept that some people have a deep sense of their gender and that this should be respected. I cannot explain this deep sense, but it exists for many. It may be a limitation to my analysis that I personally do not have this deep sense of gender. It may be that this absence is what motivated my theory (BUTLER, 2015).
Her book Gender Trouble (2008) received strong criticism, as well as her supposed denial of the natural difference between the sexes. Her lectures in Brazil were the target of hostile public protests. Butler explained her own motivations and commented:
Some people live in peace with the gender assigned to them, but others suffer when they are forced to conform to social norms that nullify their deepest sense of who they are and who they want to be. For these people, it is an urgent need to create conditions for a life that is possible to live. (…) Indeed, something that concerns me is how often people who do not fit gender norms and heterosexual expectations are harassed, assaulted, and murdered.
(…) Did the book deny the existence of a natural difference between the sexes? Not at all, although it highlights the existence of divergent scientific paradigms to determine the differences between the sexes and observes that some bodies have mixed attributes that make their classification difficult. I also stated that human sexuality takes different forms and that we should not assume that knowing a person’s gender gives us any clue about their sexual orientation (BUTLER, 2017).
Not infrequently, excerpts from Butler are cited to make a reductionist cut of her work. Simply identifying this author with gender ideology unduly disqualifies her research and reflection, as ideology is an idea that takes over people’s thinking uncritically. When linking Butler to gender ideology, the following accusations fall on her: wanting to deny the body as a legitimate expression of the individual’s identity, capable of expressing such identity adequately, wanting to eliminate all differences and all social structures, and wanting to demolish the primary foundation of society constituted by the family, as stated in a certain publication (CNBB, 2019, p.27 and 32). Based on her thinking, these accusations do not hold. This is moral panic. Such panic is characterized by a disproportionate collective reaction of fear in the face of demands for social change, in the face of a supposed threat perceived as something that endangers a crucial component of society, which is the social order itself.
5 Gestures and words of Pope Francis
Although magisterial documents do not express a more positive position on LGBT+ people, Pope Francis’ public gestures and words in welcoming these people have been positive and inspiring examples. At the beginning of 2015, he received a visit from the Spanish transsexual Diego Neria and his partner Macarena at his home. Diego’s life story then became known, showing the terrible prejudice that many transsexuals suffer and how it can be faced.
He was born with female genitalia, but since childhood, he felt like a man. His brain and self-perception did not correspond to the rest of his body. At Christmas, Diego would write to the three kings asking for a present to become a boy. As he grew older, he resigned himself to his condition. “My prison was my own body because it did not correspond at all to what my soul felt,” he confesses. He hid this reality as much as he could. His mother asked him not to change his body while she was alive. And he complied with this wish until her death. When she died, Diego was 39 years old. A year later, he began the transgender process. In the church he attended, he aroused the indignation of people: “how dare you enter here in your condition? You are not worthy.”
Once, he even heard from a priest on the street: “you are the devil’s daughter!” But fortunately, he had the support of the bishop of his diocese, who gave him encouragement and comfort. This encouraged Diego to write to Pope Francis and request a meeting with him. The pope received and embraced him in the Vatican, in the presence of his partner, with words that brought him great comfort. Today, Diego Neria is a man at peace (HERNÁNDEZ, 2015).
In the United States, Pope Francis received his old student and gay friend Yayo Grassi and his partner at the apostolic nunciature. Grassi had already introduced his partner to the pope two years earlier. This relationship was never a problem in the friendship between Grassi and Francis. On the trip from Brazil to Rome, the pope had said: “If a person is gay, seeks the Lord, and has good will, who am I to judge them? (…) These people should not be marginalized for that” (FRANCISCO, 2013a). His examples show what it means to welcome and not judge and are worth even more than many words. If all parents and relatives of homosexuals and transgender people followed the pope’s example, welcoming them into their homes with their respective partners, many of this population’s problems would be solved.
Once, a journalist asked the pope what he would say to a transgender person and if he, as a pastor and minister, would accompany them. The pope replied that he has accompanied homosexual and transgender people, recalling Diego’s case, and urged: “people must be accompanied as Jesus accompanies them. (…) in each case, welcome, accompany, study, discern, and integrate them. This is what Jesus would do today” (FRANCISCO, 2016a). Diego’s story is not an exaltation of liberal individualism, nor a relentless pursuit of pleasure, nor human self-sufficiency that rebels against the Creator’s work. But it shows the inner truth of the person coming to light, as in the lives of many LGBT people.
6 Between good and bad paths to follow
Brazilian bishops also open the way for the reception and inclusion of homosexual people, their partners, and children by publishing a document on the pastoral renewal of parishes, taking into account new family situations. Among such situations, the bishops state, there are children adopted by same-sex people who live in a stable union. It is noted that many have distanced themselves and continue to distance themselves from communities because they felt rejected because the first orientation they received consisted of prohibitions and not in living the faith amid difficulty. In parish renewal, they urge, there must be pastoral conversion to avoid emptying the Good News announced by the Church and, at the same time, not failing to address the new situations of family life. “Welcoming, guiding, and including in the communities those who live in another family configuration are inescapable challenges” (CNBB, 2014, n. 217-218).
The reality of LGBT people, their conflicts, and sufferings is absent in many official pronouncements of the Catholic Church. In the Latin American context, for example, the Document of Aparecida, when addressing the poor, excluded, and those who suffer, mentions: migrants, victims of violence, refugees, victims of kidnapping and human trafficking, the disappeared, HIV carriers, victims of endemic diseases, drug addicts, the elderly, boys and girls victims of prostitution, pornography, violence or child labor, abused women, victims of exclusion and sexual exploitation, people with disabilities, large groups of unemployed, excluded by technological illiteracy, homeless people in large cities, indigenous people, Afro-Americans, landless farmers, and miners (DAp n.402). Unfortunately, talking about LGBT+ is still uncomfortable in many environments. Not infrequently, the suffering of this population is ignored or silenced.
There are also cases where this same population is ostracized. Unfortunately, people like the priest and the faithful whom the Spanish transsexual Diego Neria encountered, considering him unworthy and diabolical, are everywhere. There are publications in the Catholic Church, with wide dissemination, that caricature gender and sexual orientation issues, such as the didactic material in several languages distributed at the World Youth Day in 2013. This contained the drawing of a man sitting and wondering: “what gender will I choose for this year”? On another page, the drawing of a naked boy looking at his own penis, wondering: “am I not a man? Me? So… what is this?” (CNPF, 2013, p.68 and 71). Now, no one chooses to be gay or lesbian as they choose where to travel on vacation. No transgender person, when a boy or girl, was puzzled by their own anatomy simply by hearing nonsense from third parties. This is trampling on the drama experienced by so many people. These caricatures are unfair and cruel. They are examples of homophobic and transphobic bullying, fought by the British Catholic bishops’ manual.
A recent document on gender was released by the Vatican, subtitled: “for a path of dialogue on the issue of gender in education” (CEC, 2019). It basically reiterates the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church on anthropology and sexuality, including its fears. But at the same time, it opens some paths that can be promising. A good novelty is the distinction it makes between ideology and various gender research conducted by the human sciences, recognizing that there is no lack of investigations seeking to adequately deepen the way sexual difference between man and woman is lived in different cultures (n.6). Therefore, there is no reason for hysteria whenever gender is mentioned. As the document is a proposal to foster dialogue, and not a definitive and unquestionable pronouncement, it is necessary to listen to other possible partners in this dialogue. Among them are the various researchers and the people being researched: women and men (heterosexual and cisgender), as well as LGBT+. Their experiences and consciousness cannot be neglected.
When the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina celebrated its centenary, Pope Francis made an exhortation to theologians that can greatly help in addressing gender issues. He exhorts them to continue on the path of the Second Vatican Council, rereading the Gospel from the perspective of contemporary culture. Studying and teaching theology should mean “living on a frontier,” where the Gospel meets the needs of the people to whom it must be announced in a comprehensible and meaningful way. One should avoid a theology that is exhausted in academic disputes or that contemplates humanity from a crystal castle. Theology must accompany cultural and social processes, especially difficult transitions, assuming the conflicts that affect everyone. “Good theologians, like good pastors, have the scent of the people and the street, and with their reflection, pour oil and wine on the wounds of men” (FRANCISCO, 2015a), like the Good Samaritan of the Gospel.
At the opening of the Council, Pope Saint John XXIII made a vigorous warning against the prophets of doom who only see corruption and ruin, always announcing unfortunate events, as if the end of the world were imminent. They repeat that in our time, compared to the past, things have only gotten worse; and “they behave as if they have learned nothing from history” (JOHN XXIII, 1962, IV, n.2-3). Today, there are no shortage of prophets of doom, for whom everything threatens to destroy the family and society. The Catholic Church would only have to reiterate dogmas, precepts, and prohibitions.
Contrary to this, to go to the borders, reread the Gospel in new perspectives, and heal wounds instead of increasing them, it is necessary to discern the elements of current gender and sexual orientation studies that contribute to advancing these issues in the theological and pastoral field. The good missionary recognizes the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of human beings and cultures, even in non-Christian civilizations and religions. The Spirit cares for and makes the seeds of the Word “present in religious initiatives and human efforts in search of truth, good, and God” (JOHN PAUL II, 1990, n.28). The same applies to gender studies.
Pope Francis recalls the famous warning of his predecessor about the prophets of doom, adding that the believer’s gaze can recognize the light of the Holy Spirit radiating in the darkness, glimpse the wine into which water can be transformed, and discover the wheat growing amid the tares (EG n.84). The time has come to open paths that favor the citizenship of the LGBT+ population in society and the Church. That everyone can live and breathe in their gender and sexuality, without the risk of marginalization, pathologization, and violence.
Luís Corrêa Lima, PUC-Rio – (original text in Portuguese)
7 References
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______. Exortação apostólica Evangelii Gaudium. Roma, 2013. Available at: <https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/pt/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html>. Accessed on: 4 Nov 2019.
______. Carta do papa Francisco por ocasião do centenário da Faculdade de Teologia da Pontifícia Universidade Católica argentina. 3 Mar 2015a. Available at: <https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/pt/letters/2015/documents/papa-francesco_20150303_lettera-universita-cattolica-argentina.html>. Accessed on: 27 Oct 2019.
______. Audiência geral. 15 Apr 2015b. Available at: <https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/pt/audiences/2015/documents/papa-francesco_20150415_udienza-generale.html>. Accessed on: 12 Sep 2019.
______. Exortação pós-sinodal Amoris Laetitia. Roma, 2016. Available at:
https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/pt/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia.html. Accessed on: 4 Oct 2019.
______. Conferência de imprensa do santo padre durante o voo Baku-Roma, 2 Oct 2016a. Available at: <https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/pt/speeches/2016/ october/documents/papa-francesco_20161002_georgia-azerbaijan-conferenza-stampa.html>. Accessed on: 4 Nov 2019.
HERCULANO-HOUZEL, Suzana. The homosexual brain. Mente & Cérebro, n.165, p.46-51, 2006.
HERNÁNDEZ, Ana. El bendito encuentro entre Francisco y Diego. Hoy, edition 26 Jan 2015. Available at: <https://www.hoy.es/extremadura/201501/25/bendito-encuentro-entre-francisco-20150125003218-v.html>. Accessed on: 16 Jan 2019.
INTERVENÇÃO DO REPRESENTANTE DA SANTA SÉ, 18 Dec 2008. Available at: <https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/2008/documents/rc_seg-st_20081218_statement-sexual-orientation_po.html>. Accessed on: 13 Feb 2019.
JESUS, Jaqueline. Orientações sobre identidade de gênero: conceitos e termos. Brasília, 2012. Available at: <https://www.sertao.ufg.br/up/16/o/ORIENTA%C3%2587%C3%2585ES_POPULA%C3%2587%C3%2583O_TRANS.pdf?1334065989>. Accessed on: 6 Nov 2019.
JOÃO PAULO II. Carta encíclica Redemptoris Missio. 1990. Available at: <https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/pt/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_07121990_redemptoris-missio.html>. Accessed on: 3 Jan 2019.
JOÃO XXIII. Discurso de sua santidade papa João XXIII na abertura solene do SS. Concílio. Roma, 1962. Available at: <https://www.vatican.va/content/john-xxiii/pt/speeches/1962/documents/hf_j-xxiii_spe_19621011_opening-council.html> Accessed on: 17 Dec 2019.
MINISTÉRIO DA EDUCAÇÃO (MEC). Resolution CNE/CP 1/2018. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, 22 Jan 2018, Section 1, p.17. Available at: <https://www.direito.mppr.mp.br/arquivos/File/rcp001_18.pdf>. Accessed on: 12 Sep 2019.
PIANA, Giannino. Sexo e gênero: para além da alternativa. Boletim eletrônico IHU, 16 Jul 2014. Available at: <https://www.ihu.unisinos.br/533286-sexo-e-genero-para-alem-da-alternativa-artigo-de-giannino-piana>. Accessed on: 4 Oct 2019.
RESOLUTION Nº 11, de 18 Dec 2014. Diário oficial da união, 12 Mar 2015, nº 48, Section 1, p.2. Available at: <https://www.lex.com.br/legis_26579640_RESOLUCAO_N_11_DE_18_DE_DEZEMBRO_DE_2014.aspx>. Accessed on:13 Feb 2019.
SUPREMO TRIBUNAL FEDERAL (STF). Decisão, 13 June 2019. Available at: <https://portal.stf.jus.br/processos/downloadTexto.asp?id=4848010&ext=RTF>. Accessed on: 17 Dec 2019.
To delve deeper:
CONCILIUM. International Journal of Theology. Gender in theology, spirituality, and practice, n. 347, 2012/4.
CONCILIUM. International Journal of Theology (Spanish). Gender in theology, spirituality, practice, n. 347, September 2012. Available at: <https://www.verbodivino.es/web/concilium/2012/Concilium%20347.pdf>. Accessed on: 9 Aug 2019.
CONGRAGACIÓN PARA LA EDUCACIÓN CATÓLICA. Varón y mujer los creó: para una vía de diálogo sobre la cuestión del gender en la educación. Roma, 2019. Available at: <https://www.educatio.va/content/dam/cec/Documenti/19_0998_SPAGNOLO.pdf>. Accessed on: 1 Sep 2019.
LIMA, Luís C. Estudos de gênero versus ideologia: desafios da teologia. Mandrágora, v.21. n.2, p. 89-112, 2015. Available at: https://www.metodista.br/revistas/revistas-ims/index.php/MA/article/view/6117/5074. Accessed on: 12 Sep 2019.
______. The pope and family issues: grappling with gender and sexual orientation. Mandrágora, v.23, n.2, p.27-47, 2017. Available at: <https://www.metodista.br/revistas/revistas-metodista/index.php/MA/article/view/8326/6055>. Accessed on: 18 Sep 2019.
PIANA, Giannino. Sesso e genere oltre l’alternativa. 9 Aug 2014. Available at: <https://www.viandanti.org/website/sesso-e-genere-oltre-lalternativa/>. Accessed on: 4 Nov 2019.
PIANA, Giannino. Sesso e genere oltre l’alternativa. 9 Jul 2014. Available at: <https://www.viandanti.org/website/sesso-e-genere-oltre-lalternativa/>.