Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Pax Christi!
One of the many evolution-related scourges of modern times is the phenomenon of so-called gender confusion. There are many reasons why more and more children seem to be confused about their gender. A recent lecture by an environmental toxicologist at a University of Exeter symposium disclosed that twenty per cent of male fish in UK rivers display feminine characteristics, as a result of exposure to estrogen from birth control pills, plastics and other pollutants. The contamination of the water supply with estrogen is one of a number of factors that help to explain the increasing number of children expressing confusion about their gender. However, while there may be objective reasons for this emotional confusion, there is no excuse for theological or anthropological confusion about gender. In at least one diocese in the United States, however, it has become official diocesan policy to welcome same-sex "families" and students who claim to have changed their gender to become "transgender" into diocesan schools.
The sacred history of Genesis as understood in the Church from the beginning clearly teaches that God created man as man and woman as woman from the beginning. Gender is not something that "evolved"; it is a created good which in human beings especially reflects the inner mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. This is reflected in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis where Moses tells us that God said, "'Let Us make man in our own image.' In the image of God He created man; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27). The complementarity of man and woman in Holy Marriage, with their consequent ability to procreate new life, reflects the Most Holy Trinity in a number of different ways.
In the first place, Adam, created first, reflects the role of the Father in the Most Holy Trinity; Eve, created from Adam's side, reflects the Eternal Word, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is eternally generated by the Father; and their offspring, had Adam and Eve been united without sin, would have been immaculately conceived and thus would have formed a perfect finite reflection of the Holy Ghost who proceeds from the Father through the Son and who is, in the words of St. Maximilian Kolbe, "the Uncreated Immaculate Conception." (For an excellent discussion of the procession of the Holy Ghost, harmonizing the expressions "from the Father and the Son" with "from the Father through the Son" in the writings of the Church Fathers, please see the explanation at this link by a priest of the Roman Rite.)
At our recent symposium in Rome on the special creation of Adam and Eve as the foundation of the Church's teaching on Holy Marriage, philosopher Aurora Restrepo presented a wonderful paper arguing that gender is not merely a physical reality but something intrinsic to the soul of a man or a woman. Although the author's philosophical terminology requires an effort on the part of the reader, we believe that this effort will be more than repaid, so that anyone who reads the paper carefully will understand why, since the human soul has been defined dogmatically as "the form of the [human] body," and since gender is a created good that is inherent to the soul, it is as impossible for a man to become a woman as it would be for the same man to become a chimpanzee.
We are grateful to all of those who have made recent gifts to enable us to complete our "Foundations Restored" DVD series before the end of the year. This DVD series will be the single greatest tool we will ever have produced to enable Catholics to successfully defend the traditional Catholic doctrine of creation from the perspective of theology, philosophy and natural science. If you have not yet contributed to the project, please prayerfully consider going to our home page and making a gift today. If you would like to see a promotional video on the DVD series, please let me know and I will be happy to send you a link.
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata,
Hugh Owen
