'Male and Female He Created Them': The Roman Catholic Church's Inconsistent Stance on Gender

Abstract

The article deals with the document 'Male and Female He Created Them: Toward a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education', published by the Congregation for Catholic Education in June 2019. The document is a guideline for Catholic schools, which they can apply to control and moderate the discussion on gender issues at the level of local churches and educational institutions. The article presents several worldwide responses to the document chiefly in the Catholic media, and then provides a rhetorical analysis and critique of its content. The analysis reveals some of the text's rhetorical devices, including labelling, the self-referentiality typical of Church documents, and inconsistencies arising from attempts to balance its message, reflecting the conflicting loyalties of representatives of the church hierarchy since the Second Vatican Council. The article then carries out a more general critique of the Roman Catholic discourse on gender, which plays a significant role in fuelling the contemporary culture wars. This critique reveals the Church's lack of self-reflection on its position and the arbitrary nature of its interpretations of gender related phenomena. Finally, it also highlights the political nature of the Church's gender discourse, which seeks to uphold the status quo of the Church's power structure.

Keywords

• catholic church
• gender theory
• anti-gender movement
• ideology
• heteronormativity
• homosexuality
• transgender
• intersexuality