Beyond Being Based: hot takes on Dignitas Infinita

on Bad Catholics, sins crying to heaven for vengeance, transitioning methods, & the desperate need for charity

So once again, the Vatican reaffirmed its position on transgenderism. Per usual, gender theory is called out for its lack of logical coherence, and gender reassignment/confirmation surgeries are criticized on moral grounds, while we are reminded that trans people are to be welcomed and treated with dignity.

I’m not interested in analyzing this new text. If you’re truly interested in hearing more of our take on trans issues, read the footnote below¹, and check out my review of Mark Yarhouse’s book on youth with dysphoria (among the best books out there on the topic), and my interview with Limpida on his detransitioning experience. Also see our footnotes on the desperate need to revive “Bad Catholicism”² and our trans readership³.

Pinning down the Pope

The Pope has been labelled a “woke” leftist agitator one minute (see Jordan Peterson’s comments), and a “based” ideological reactionary the next (see the “Pope of Gender” Judith Butler’s comments). He has affirmed that people in same-sex relationships who are earnestly seeking to live in conformity to God’s will can receive blessings from priests and that trans people can be baptized, and also has condemned gay marriage as a “movement of the Father of Lies” and that teaching children gender theory is a form of “ideological colonization.”

Surely, I don’t want to act as if Francis never falls into cognitive dissonance, or that he couldn’t speak with a tad more prudence and clarity (for more on this, check out these measured critiques of his approach to queer peeps and same sex blessings…and check out my long list of concerns about the Francis papacy here). But in general, his thought embodies the coherent yet paradoxical “both/and” logic of Catholicism. In this regard, the Church challenges the West’s current ideological landscape on two fronts: