Cardinal Vincent Nichols has said that schoolchildren must accept the gender into which they were born if they are to be truly happy.
The Archbishop of Westminster entered the gender ideology debate in a meeting with Catholic head teachers.
During his talk he appealed to a “common sense of humanity” as an antidote to rampant individualism, saying it was the “foundation for much of Catholic moral teaching in areas of friendship, relationships, family life, human sexuality”.
The cardinal said: “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.
“In an age of fluidity, even in gender identity, and at a time when the response to ‘difference’ is to become closed in a self-selecting world of the like-minded and reject that which is different, such foundations are so important. They affirm that there are ‘givens’ which come with birth and with solid identities and which project across generations.”
He continued: “They help us keep hold of the reality that we are not single, self-determining individuals but members of a great family, with all its trials, diversities and struggles, and within that family, not alone, will we find our greatest joy.”
The cardinal warned teachers that “government diktat or favour” alone would result only in the “barren expectations of tolerance”.
Proposals in Scotland, likely to be replicated later this year in England and Wales, seek to allow any person to change their gender by law simply by self-declaration.
Crowdfunding campaign to launch John Bradburne Cause
Catholics with a devotion to John Bradburne have set up an online “crowdfunding” campaign to support his canonisation.
Bradburne, who spent his later life tending to lepers in Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe), was killed in 1979 by guerrillas during the country’s civil war.
His wandering life of piety, heroic care for the sick and large body of poetry have brought him devotees around the world. Each year up to 25,000 people attend a memorial service in Zimbabwe.
Celia Brigstocke, director of the John Bradburne Memorial Society, told Independent Catholic News that there had been two miraculous cures attributed to him, but that to launch a Cause for canonisation “will mean a lot of research and checks which costs money”.
The crowdfunding campaign, on the website justgiving.com, will need to attract some donors with deep pockets. US Catholic officials generally cite $250,000 as the total cost for bringing a Cause, if successful, through to the canonisation Mass.
The procedure tends to be slower and more expensive for modern saints, as more is known about their lives.
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