British Bishops Under Fire for Recognizing Pro-Transgender ‘Day of Remembrance’

More on the Bishops of England and Wales endorsement of perversion.

From LifeSiteNews

WESTMINSTER, England, November 20, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales told its social media followers this afternoon that today is the “Transgender Day of Remembrance.”

According to the Catholic Calendar of the Saints, in England today is the Feast of St. Edmund, King and Martyr. In other countries it is the feast day of St. Felix of Valois, St. Edmund Rich, and a number of lesser-known saints.

Nevertheless, the Catholic Bishops preferred to propagate to their flock a purely secular, and highly controversial, new devotion which was founded by a “trans” activist named Gwendolyn Ann Smith in 1999.

“Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance and we pray for all people who are ill at ease with their gender, seek to change it, suffer for it and have been persecuted, and also killed,” said the bishops’ tweet.

“All people are loved by God and are valued in their inherent God-given dignity,” it concluded.

The tweet was welcomed by American LGBT activist Father James Martin, SJ., who tweeted in response, “I join with the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales in praying for all transgender people, especially those who are persecuted in any way. May you know that you are all God's beloved children.”

However, English Catholics were less enthusiastic at what some construed as a blurring of Catholic doctrine on human sexuality.

Author and speaker Father Marcus Holden responded to the bishops’ tweet by saying that the secular holiday is part of an “ideological colonisation”:

“While we must pray for everyone who has died and fight against persecutions of any group of vulnerable people, ‘Transgender Remembrance Day’ is part of an ‘ideological colonisation’ which Catholics cannot support,” he wrote. “I’m surprised to see this here.”

The English priest concluded with a link to the wikipedia page about the secular, pro-LGBT innovation.  

After initial support from other English Catholics, Holden was then attacked through Twitter by a number of Fr. Martin’s followers, invited by a woman named Julia Mooney to “come help even it up a little.”

English apologist Deacon Nick Donnelly saw the tweet as evidence that Catholics should be alarmed that the bishops of England and Wales are trying to drive the Church into the LGBT fold.

“This tweet confirms reasons for alarm that the Bishops of England & Wales as a conference are co-opting the Church into the LGBT political movement,” he wrote on Twitter.

Referencing a pro-homosexual curriculum introduced in UK Catholic schools with episcopal support, he continued, “The determination to push the @CathEdServiceLGBT ‘Made in God's Image’ program for schools was worrying enough. Now this!”

LifeSiteNews reached out to the media office of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales but did not receive a response by press time.

Endocrinologist: The concept of ‘gender identity’ is a ‘fantasy or superstitious belief’

In “The Gender Identity Phantom,” an article published in MercatorNet on November 12, endocrinologist Michael Laidlaw explained that medical treatment attempting to “change” one’s sex is dangerous and unscientific.  

“Comprehensive gender affirmative therapy is a high risk, experimental therapy based on low quality evidence and represents a treatment for a condition which cannot be diagnosed by any doctor,” he stated. (Some of the left’s preferred terms for medical “treatment” that does not affirm someone’s gender, but actually denies it, are “gender affirmative therapy” and “gender confirmation surgery.”)

In his essay, Laidlaw contrasts the evidence a doctor would present to convince parents that their child has cancer and needs treatment with a conversation a doctor might have with parents about a child’s belief he or she is “really” of the opposite gender.

Laidlaw called the concept of “gender identity” a “fantasy or superstitious belief.”

While recognizing that “variations in gender expression” – meaning “behaviors that fall outside sex stereotypes” – are a normal part of human diversity and that no child should be bullied “for failing to conform to sex stereotypes,” Laidlaw said children should also be supported in the reality of their biological sex. He also suggested that “current treatment of gender identity” is worthy of inclusion in a classic study of mass hysteria.

“There is a classic work from Scottish journalist Charles Mackay entitled ‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,’” he wrote.

“It is a study of crowd psychology and discusses irrational economic fads such as the Dutch tulip mania and pseudo-scientific belief systems such as alchemy. If someone decides to revise or add to this classic work, then the 21st century treatment of gender identity will certainly be worthy of the chapter,” he continued.

As Catholic writer Christina Mead put it in an article for teens:

If you are having a transgender experience right now, that doesn’t mean it’s permanent. God has given us the gift of science and the wisdom of doctors to help us heal where we need healing. Doing harm to your healthy body and hormones is not the answer. Your healthy body doesn’t need healing. There are other options to help you manage. There are other steps you can take to help your mind not be at war with your body.

We humans are integrated beings. That means our souls don’t reside in a round glowing ball in the middle of our chest. Our bodies aren’t something to detest, something that holds our soul for now but isn’t important.

We are one being. So just as much as your soul is you, so is your body you. What we do with our bodies matters. You don’t just hurt my nose if you punch my face, you hurt me. If someone uses my body sexually for their own gratification, it’s not just my body that is affected, I am affected – my whole personhood has been hurt by being objectified.

When someone is having a transgender experience, it may feel like sex reassignment surgery, or hormone therapy will heal your body to be more in line with your perceived gender identity. In reality it is hurting the dignity of who you are, body and soul.