View email in your browser ([link removed])

Welcome to Giving Tuesday. Two Catholic ethicists argue that the church should respect the dignity, integrity and agency of transgender and intersex persons. A bishop's warnings about a coronavirus vaccine has an NCR commentary writer mad about single-issue tunnel vision.
------------------------------------------------------------


** The Catholic Church must listen to transgender and intersex people ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------

The biological reality of intersex people can give insight into the complex reality of transgender people and provide direction for the church's moral response to both groups, argue Catholic ethicists Michael G. Lawler and Todd A. Salzman in an essay in NCR.

A quick scan of medical literature reveals that about two in every 1,000 live human births (0.2%) is a child who is intersex—a small number, but almost double the frequency of the birth of Down syndrome children, who deservedly get attention and respect in our society. Surely intersex children, lost and crying out in the social and Catholic wilderness, deserve the same attention and respect as human beings created by and in the mysterious image of the mysterious God, Lawler and Salzman say.

Their intersex bodies are troubling to their parents, their society and their church for only one reason: They are judged to be biologically sexually ambiguous when compared to the dominant female-male binary. They would not be ambiguous and troubling, the authors suggest, if society and church were to listen to their claim that they constitute a minority third sex.

Read the entire essay here. ([link removed])

More background:
* Transgender Catholics criticize ([link removed]) St. Louis retiring archbishop's letter, "Compassion and Challenge," which said that sex and gender cannot be separated.

* The Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education questions the intentions of transgender people and blasts gender theory in the 2019 document, "Male and female he created them ([link removed]) ."

* A three-part series of Zoom sessions aims to educate Catholic priests on how to better serve their trans parishioners ([link removed]) .

------------------------------------------------------------


** Vaccine concerns reveal single-issue tunnel vision ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------

Commentary writer Valerie Schultz was not surprised by the tone of a video statement from Fresno, California, Bishop Joseph Brennan, who warned that the COVID-19 vaccine must prove to be "ethical and morally acceptable" before any sheep in his flock can get it. The problem: He singles out the Pfizer vaccine as relying on "stem-cell lines derived from, well, babies who've been aborted."

"Oh, Lordy," writes Schultz. "For some Catholic leaders, everything comes down to abortion, even the ones that happened in the 1960s and provided stem cells that have been used in medical research ever since."

She asks: Where are the videos about the need to protest the ongoing vigorous schedule of federal executions? Where are the videos about the morally unacceptable situations of, say, homeless people living in our streets or brutally separated families wailing at our borders or people of losing their lives because of their color or desperate women seeing no alternative to abortion? Where are the videos promoting living wages and safe workplaces, especially for the many farmworkers in the Diocese of Fresno?

You can read the essay here ([link removed]) .

More background:
* The chairmen of the U.S. bishops' doctrine and pro-life committees said that the use of Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines is morally acceptable ([link removed]) , according to an internal memo.

------------------------------------------------------------

More headlines
* Viewing a televised version of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass reminds NCR columnist Sr. Chris Schenk that the church's clerical system was never meant to work ([link removed]) .

* A federal appeals panel has upheld Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's order to stop in-person classes at religious schools ([link removed]) during the coronavirus pandemic.

* Faith-based organizing is heating up ([link removed]) in Georgia before the state's twin runoff elections Jan. 5 that will determine control of the Senate.

* ICYMI: NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters spoke with Colin McEnroe of WNPR ([link removed]) about Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory and his plans to work with the incoming Biden administration to advance the social justice causes important to both.


------------------------------------------------------------

Final thoughts

Today is Giving Tuesday, an annual day of giving across the world. Please consider supporting the independent Catholic journalism you rely on and trust with a gift to NCR ([link removed]) .


Until Wednesday,

Heidi Schlumpf
NCR Executive Editor (filling in for Stephanie Yeagle)
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Twitter: @HeidiSchlumpf ([link removed])

------------------------------------------------------------


** Featured Advertisers
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]
The Rosary of Modern Sorrows: a thoughtful Peace & Justice gift for the warriors who pray for meaningful and progressive change. May your prayers lead to action! ([link removed])
[link removed]
A traditional dark old-style flavorful cake, filled with fruit and nuts, dipped in brandy and perfectly aged - Trappist Abbey Bakery ([link removed])
[link removed]
Need fresh ideas for your homilies? More than 900 relevant and practical homilies at www.seedsforsowing.com ([link removed])

------------------------------------------------------------

Advertisement
[link removed]

============================================================

Was this email forwarded to you from a friend? ** Sign up to get GSR and NCR email newsletters sent to your inbox. ([link removed])

** facebook.jpg ([link removed])
** twitter.jpg ([link removed])
** instagram.jpg ([link removed])
Copyright © 2020 National Catholic Reporter, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email as a reader of National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company.

** update subscription preferences ([link removed])

Our mailing address is:
National Catholic Reporter Publishing Co.
115 E Armour Blvd
Kansas City, MO 64111-1203
USA
** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
| ** view email in browser ([link removed])