In a recent post I told of Pope Francis' statement that "Gender ideology is demonic!" We now read of a 73-year-old American transsexual who has just won a
verdict that Medicare must pay his/her medical expenses for genital
reconstruction surgery. He (or she) had been living as a woman off and on ever
since he was a teenager, but at the age of 68 he decided to make a permanent
sex reassignment. Given that same-sex marriage is legal in 19 states, many are
pushing the cause of transgender people as the new new civil rights movement. The
complete normality of transexualism is becoming the new accepted view, as people
are increasingly afraid of saying no to any desire as long as it hurts no one
else. Before jumping on this bandwagon, it might behoove us to consider the the fruits of this procedure. Those with transsexualism,
after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behavior,
and psychiatric morbidity than the general population. Findings suggest that
sex reassignment, although lessening gender dysphoria, may not suffice as
treatment for transsexualism, and should inspire improved psychiatric and
somatic care after sex reassignment for this patient group. Yes, patients who suffer
from gender dysphoria deserve sympathy and psychiatric treatment, not
government funding for mutilating surgery.
P ope Paul VI will be beatified Sunday at the Vatican. While he is perhaps best known for his decisive 1968 encyclical on the regulation of birth, Humanae Vitae , he will also be remembered as a man of extraordinary gifts who was burdened by the tumult the Church faced during his 15-year papacy. His election as Pope Paul VI in 1963 required of him to bring the Second Vatican Council to a conclusion and oversee its implementation. Having taken the name Paul to signify the Church’s mission to evangelize the whole world, he made nine overseas journeys, beginning with the Holy Land. Unhappily his pontificate was marked by a series of crises. Both heterodox and traditionalist Catholics considered him feeble and vacillating, though for differing reasons, and he was tormented to the point of once saying that “the smoke of Satan” had entered the Church. It was this phrase which caught my attention to the point of research for a book on the Church in the U.S. si...

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