(A version of the following column originally appeared at the American Thinker Blog .)
The current main pop-culture headline involves former Olympian Bruce Jenner "transitioning" into a woman. He's on the cover of Vanity Fair as "Caitlyn," and he'll be receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2015 ESPY Awards.
The following Catholic priests agree.
Father Louis Jerome (of New York) wrote:
Bruce Jenner is not a woman. That is not what God created him to be. He is a very troubled and sick individual and as such deserves our compassion. He certainly is not an icon of courage. Courage, rather, is the ability to accept who we are, who God created us really to be in our human nature. Bruce has, in his own mind, 'liberated himself' from what God created him to be: a male. But as Father James Schall, S.J., put it so well, 'If we seek ourselves independently from what we ought to be, we will make ourselves into monsters and oddities.' God help us!
Father William J. Kuchinsky (of West Virginia) wrote:
I feel sad for him. I feel sad for all those who think they can find the joy and peace they crave outside of Jesus. Bruce Jenner needs help. Jesus heals. I wonder if they would award a man or woman with gender identity disorder who takes the road less traveled and does right by themselves and their children to work through this illness in a healthy way.
Father Joseph Klee (of Ohio) wrote:
It's mind-boggling to see the extent to which some will go to counter their conscience and the presence of the natural law written upon their hearts. Even should an inch-thick layer of facial make-up be applied, several pounds of silicone implanted, an exotic alternate name chosen, or whatever other measures taken, the ontological reality and essence of Bruce Jenner remains. From the beginning of time, now, and for all eternity, by God's design, this individual will remain a man.
Father Richard Perozich (of California) wrote:
Bruce certainly has a legal right to self-identify as a woman, but he remains a man regardless of any surgery, hormonal treatment, or self-identification. It's a deep-seated struggle to feel differently from one's body gender. He deserves compassion but not praise for living as a woman.
On a related note, transgender activists in Canada are now lobbying to abolish gender references from birth certificates.
From the National Post :
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has agreed to review complaints filed by the Trans Alliance Society and a handful of transgender and intersex individuals, who argue that doctors should stop assigning the sex of a baby based on a quick inspection of the baby's genitals at birth when there's a possibility they may identify under a different gender, or no gender, years later.
'Birth certificates (may) give false information about people and characterize them in a way that is actually wrong, that assumes to be right, and causes people ... actual harm,' said Morgane Oger, a transgender woman in Vancouver and chair of the society.
A commenter at LifeSiteNews hit the nail on the head:
If I were to tell my doctor I think I am Napoleon, I would get a speedy referral to the psychiatric unit. If I tell him I think I am a woman, despite the physical evidence of my body indicating I am male, I will get the right to impose my delusion on others, backed by the sanction of legal action if anybody doesn't believe me. Did the definition of insanity just change? Seriously, the lunatics have taken over the asylum, and some warped-minded lawyers are cashing in on it.
Interestingly, this whole "I'm constructing and living my own reality" scenario is essentially what the U.S. Supreme Court asserted in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992):
At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.
Insanity.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.