Father Anne led us in a retreat on Sunday, APRIL 14, 2024 at 2-5

On Sunday April 14th 2024 CTA Metro NY held our Annual Meeting in-person for the first time since 2019. To celebrate this milestone we invited Father Anne, a female Roman Catholic priest and advocate for women's ordination in the Catholic Church, to lead us in a mini-retreat and liturgy. CTA Metro NY Board Member Teresa Thompson gave the homily for the Mass presided by Father Anne, in response to the document Dignitas Infinita that was released by the Vatican earlier in the week. Read the full text for the homily below:

“Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see.” In today’s Gospel Jesus comes to the disciples leading with his full humanity. The disciples, like so often in the Gospel, don’t get it. They do not yet fully understand that Jesus is Lord, raised from the dead. Jesus wants them to understand that this is not some trick of the light or supernatural event – he is really here with us, in body, in flesh.

This recalls also the Gospel of last week on Divine Mercy Sunday. John recounts how Thomas Didymus does not believe that Jesus is returned – he is not dead, he is alive. It takes that personal encounter with Jesus for Thomas to be transformed. With grace Jesus invites him to touch the wounds in his hands and his side. In this way, Jesus says to him, engage with me. Engage with my full self – my humanity, my pain, and my resurrection.

Many of us are familiar with Caravaggio’s famous painting “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas”. It captures the moment Thomas discovers Christ’s wounds and his skepticism is conquered by revelation. In 2017, photographer Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin created an image inspired by this depiction for her exhibit titled id:TRANS. In the image, a young transgender man in an unbuttoned shirt invites his friends to look at his chest, showing them is gender-affirming top surgery scars. The young man’s hand holds one of his friend’s fingers to the truth revealed by his body, just as Jesus does with Thomas’ hand in Caravaggio’s painting. In this way the young man says to his friend, engage with me. Engage with my full self, my transgender self. My humanity, my pain, and my resurrection.

As people of God, we are invited to grow in understanding and spiritual maturity over time, both in our individual lives as well as collectively over the course of generations. In this way, God gradually unveils deeper insights and truths as human understanding evolves and historical circumstances change. We learn more about God’s nature and God’s plan for humanity through the Scriptures, yes, but also through encountering God in our lives, in the world, and with one another.

This past Monday, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published a new document titled Dignitas Infinita, Latin for human dignity. The document purports to emphasize the inherent, God-given dignity of every human person – a dignity that is intrinsic and inviolable. It makes mention of conditions that are contrary to this dignity, including poverty, war, and the marginalization of people with disabilities. However, Dignitas Infinita would also have us count transgender rights and reproductive justice among those travesties. This is a betrayal of LGBTQ people and women, particularly those of us who are Catholic.

Dignitas Infinita shows a profound lack of engagement with the lived experiences and the spiritual journeys of transgender people. And make no mistake, for transgender people of faith the journey of transition is not just a social one, but also a spiritual one. Transgender Catholics, like all other Catholics, ask themselves “who am I, and what is God’s plan for me?”

I have been blessed by opportunities to know and converse with transgender Catholics. My friend Max Kuzma, who was one of our guests at CTA Metro NY’s webinar last month, loves to share how embracing his identity as a transgender man opened him up further to the mercy of God’s love, allowing him to claim more firmly his identity in Christ. At a retreat I went to recently, I had the opportunity to meet Maddie Marlett, a transgender woman who is an up-and-coming leader in Dignity USA. In response to Dignitas Infinita, Maddie writes “my journey to self-acceptance was through realizing my self-worth as God’s creation. I made one choice and that was to live.” How different would this document have been if only church leaders would open up their hearts, minds, and spirits to journeying with people like Max and Maddie. Instead, they have missed the opportunity to encounter and cherish the diversity of humanity as created by God in God's image.