Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, released a ‘Pride Month’ video apologizing to gays, saying, “He was happy to say a word of gratitude to you for the way that you strive to integrate your faith and your identities as people of God.”
In addition, something very troubling occurred last week on the feast of Pentecost. A woman who calls herself Christian Matson and presents as a male publicly announced that she has been approved to become a Catholic transgender hermit in the diocese of Lexington, Kentucky. Bishop John Stowe of Lexington not only gave his approval for her unprecedented announcement, but his diocese also issued the following statement.
“On Pentecost Sunday, Brother Christian Matson, a professed hermit in the Diocese of Lexington, has made it public that he is a transgender person. Brother Christian has long sought to consecrate his life to Christ in the Church by living the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. He has consistently been accompanied by a competent spiritual director and has undergone formation in the Benedictine tradition. He does not seek ordination, but has professed a rule of life that allows him to support himself financially by continuing his work in the arts and to live a life of contemplation in a private hermitage. Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., accepted his profession and is grateful to Brother Christian for his witness of discipleship, integrity and contemplative prayer for the Church.”
First of all, how “competent” is this spiritual director who is counseling Matson to alter her God-given anatomy by taking what we can only assume is massive doses of testosterone, given her balding head and beard? What kind of “formation” approves of the fact that this woman is denying God created her as a woman? And how “obedient” is she to the will of God in her life when she shuns the biological reality of her own body?
The statement from the diocese also refers to her as “he/his/brother,” which is a blatant falsehood. In reality, she is a woman simply fantasizing that she is a man. And to top it off, her release of the news of this travesty on Pentecost, which was clearly an intentional decision, is a massive affront to the feast’s integrity and shows a total lack of reverence for the Holy Spirit.
We can also surmise that Matson is, first and foremost, an LGBT activist (not a religious contemplative) by the rabid and offensive language she used in her “coming out” statement. She said, “You’ve got to deal with us, because God has called us into this church. It’s not your church to kick us out of—this is God’s church, and God has called us and engrafted us into it.”
Did you catch that turn of phrase, “deal with us?” There is a merciful and charitable way to ‘deal with’ poor misguided souls who somehow think they were born in the wrong body. But simply affirming and encouraging someone in such a charade can only lead to a sense of despair, hopelessness, and self-hatred. Instead, why not encourage her to turn away from her delusion, dress and act as a female again, and go off quietly to live a life of prayer and penance?
Perhaps there was some childhood trauma that has resulted in her mental illness. Perhaps as a vulnerable youth, some unscrupulous person groomed or sexually exploited her. Regardless of the cause, only truth-based spiritual and psychological counseling will ever help someone like Matson come to wholeness, peace, and acceptance.
Matson must also have some deep-seated psychological issues to require so much attention and affirmation. The last time I checked, hermits were supposed to be hidden from view, praying and fasting in seclusion. But not this transgender hermit. For some reason, she feels the need for everyone to know all about her story. In fact, she seems to be reveling in the limelight as she was interviewed by the University of Kentucky, Religious News Service, The Lexington Herald and even appeared on EWTN’s The Journey Home some years ago.
One truly has to feel sorry for her. Not only has Matson distorted her physical appearance beyond recognition, but she will most likely have to continue taking hormones to keep up this pretense. In some ways, she is being used by the LGBT lobby to push the envelope and infiltrate the Catholic church. They don’t really care about her as a person. They don’t care about the long-term deleterious effects of taking cross-sex hormones. They don’t care that her hair fell out and she now has male-patterned baldness. They don’t care that her voice is permanently deeper. She is a test case to them, and if Matson can get a foothold in the church, there is no way of telling how far this can go.
And what is even more insidious is those members of the church, like Bishop Stowe, who are promoting this nonsense. They are also just using this pitiable woman to virtue signal an inclusive narrative, normalize sex changes, and create widespread acceptance of aberrant and dysfunctional behavior. It is absolutely unconscionable that the Diocese of Lexington has allowed such a person with this much psychological baggage to commit to any religious vows. Matson is trapped in her own delusion and, therefore, cannot make an honest and free decision.
One question to ask: Where are Stowe’s fellow bishops fraternally correcting him for his blatant disregard for Church teaching?