Earlier this year, things got heated around the LA Dodgers and Catholic-mocking drag queen group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. But could actual nuns one day bear beards? From the looks of things, it's not a solid "no."
Historically, Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana is an institution for undergraduate women. Even so, its website boasts, "All are welcome." Relatedly, the 1884-founded school recent updated its non-discrimination policy:
Saint Mary's College is a Catholic women’s college. [It] considers admission for undergraduate applicants whose sex is female or who consistently live and identify as women. ... [A]dmission policies are informed by Title IV of the Education Amendments of 1972, which allows for single-sex admission policies in institutions that have historically served women.
Of course, no school in 1972 was assigning the label of "woman" to people with prostates. The same could be said of 2002. But all things are new thanks to the revolutionary notion of "gender" and "gender identity."
Saint Mary’s does not discriminate in admission, employment, or administration of its programs and activities on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, gender identity, age, disability, genetic information, military service, or any other characteristic or class protected under federal, state or local law.
As reported by student paper The Observer, the now-open can of worms creates a host of questions including how women with worms will use the can. Restrooms, housing, and other issues will soon be sorted:
[President Katie Conboy] assembled a President’s Task Force for Gender Identity and Expression that will present recommendations for housing considerations and on community education around both Catholic identity and women’s college identity.
In an email sent to faculty, staff and students Tuesday evening, President Katie Conboy said the College is still determining the practices that will follow from the policy. Admissions will begin considering transgender applicants in fall 2024, according to the email.
Katie knows what's what -- at this point, she's far from a trailblazer:
“We are by no means the first Catholic women’s college to adopt a policy with this scope."
Indeed -- religion is gender ideology's final frontier. It's straightened out science; now it's fine-tuning faith:
Scientific American: The Racist Myth of Binary Sex Wasn't Invented 'Til Nearly 1800
At Your Cervix: Medical School Confirms Three or More Sexes, Salutes Men 'With Cervices'
Hospitals Are Starting to Ask Men if They're Pregnant
Christian Church Leads Prayer to the 'God of Pronouns,' the 'Great They/Them' Who Breastfeeds
It's Official: Transgender Bishop Will Oversee Nearly 200 Congregations
Church Pastor Claims Jesus 'Transgenders Himself' in the Bible
Of course, Catholic leadership isn't unanimously onboard with Saint Mary's new normal. Via Facebook, Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades has expressed opposition:
“The desire of Saint Mary’s College to show hospitality to people who identify as transgender is not the problem. The problem is a Catholic woman’s college embracing a definition of woman that is not Catholic.”
And:
"No doubt Saint Mary’s College desires to promote love, inclusion, and acceptance within the community. But it does not do so authentically when it separates love from truth."
As for "a definition of woman" that is Catholic, as time goes on, expect an increasingly elastic standard. Saint Mary's is merely keeping up with the times; that's why it runs a Division of Inclusion and Equity.
From its DIE page:
Our offices exist as an institutional response to achieve inclusive excellence across Saint Mary’s and to address the growing needs of our changing campus community.
That effort includes an LGBTQ+ Center.
The school is also focused on safety, and likely not the OSHA sort:
The mission of the Division for Inclusion and Equity is to educate and empower the Saint Mary’s community through collaboration and resources to create a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment for all constituents and to cultivate a culture of academic and institutional excellence.
Saint Mary's new allowance makes sense -- in President Katie's email, she reportedly refers to sex as something "assigned at birth." If it's merely assigned, then womanhood may be self-assigned at will.
So goes faith-based education, aligned with the advances of our secular world. There was a time in America when religious institutions led the culture. Progress is still a single-file line, but the order of those marching in it has reversed.
-ALEX
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