June is Pride month, which often invites extra attention and conversation in the Catholic Church about the Church's official teaching on matters of sexuality and gender.
While the areas of LGBTQ+ Catholic study and ministry have expanded over the decades, the Church’s teaching has remained relatively consistent: That only those sexual acts that are both unitive and procreative, between one man and one woman, are rightly ordered. Discussions of these topics still often center what is believed to be "natural,” but contemporary science and social progression reveal to us more and more how physical bodies and gendered expression both occur in natural diversity.
And it’s not just LGBTQ+ people implicated in the church’s sexual ethic! People with hormonal disorders, disabilities, and other chronic conditions can also find themselves excluded.
In this episode, we tell some of these stories.
Our guest Madeline Marlett is a writer, speaker, and LGBTQ+ activist. She shares generously about growing up Catholic and coming to embrace her body and identity as a trans woman.
Bernardin Scholar Teresa Thompson, who you'll remember from our episode on civil disobedience and nonviolent activism, shares in this episode about her current pregnancy and how loving women echoes in her life the love of God.
Media Fellow Madison Chastain rounds out this episode’s story sharing with insights into her own embodied experience with PCOS, infertility, and gender identity. Three different women, three different bodies, three different perspectives on how belief, life, and love intersect with the Church’s ethics.
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