An Iowa bishop issued pastoral guidelines on gender and sexuality recently that encourage “reasonable accommodations” that may allow kids in schools of the Iowa diocese to cross-dress and compete on sports teams of the opposite sex.
Bishop Thomas Zinkula of Davenport also wrote a letter that said the committee on drafting a policy regarding sexual and gender identity issues sought to “find a balance” regarding the real pastoral needs of sexual and gender minorities and their families while remaining true to the teachings of the Catholic faith.
“The committee desired to create a space within the cultural tension associated with this topic where each person feels welcomed and heard, as our Church and society strive to attain a clearer comprehension of this complex situation,” he wrote. “In the end, we concluded that there is not an easy, ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution that can be applied to all persons and in all circumstances; we are called to accompany the person in front of us in all of their particularity.”
Zinkula acknowledges the guidelines do not provide all the answers. LifeSite News worries the guidelines could include accommodations regarding bathroom use, sports participation and dress that are not in accordance with a child’s biological sex because the guidelines call for a “basic willingness to make reasonable and appropriate accommodations when possible.”
Under the “case-by-case” approach section of the guidelines, Zinkula wrote blanket policies may prove “ineffective and may risk doing greater harm.”
“A policy that is too sweeping may hurt or disenfranchise people,” he wrote.
Zinkula cautions assuming that people struggling with sexual orientation or gender identity are going through a “phase.”
“It would not be assumed that this is a phase, the result of cultural brainwashing, a desire for attention or a fad,” he wrote. “At the same time, good judgment should be used.”
He also said we should start situations by accepting their experiences as “authentic.”
Iowa, however, has a law that protects women’s sports.
The letter and the guidelines are available here.
