2024-11-01-eEdition

NOVEMBER 1, 2024 THE CATHOLIC WEEK PAGE 5 without being disagreeable.” His gentle correction made me realize that I had in fact been arguing like a jerk. Maybe my arguments had some merit, but I didn’t have to attack the other person. In a very short time, we are going to be dealing with elections and election results. I strongly disagree with a lot of the positions that various politicians hold. I am not afraid to broach controversial or contentious topics with family or friends; however, I have never forgotten my father’s admo- nition. I need to be able to disagree with someone without becoming disagreeable. This is easier said than done. I would like to offer one other piece of advice. When you are entering into a conver- sation that is likely to be con- tentious, listen first. Make sure you understand what the person is saying. So often we tend to not listen very well because we are formulating our rebuttal. Listen first. Try to understand why the other person thinks the way they do and ask questions. Seek understanding of the other person. This does not mean you agree with the person at the end of the conversation, but you should understand their views better and your friendship should remain intact. Don’t lose a friend or alienate a family member. Disagree, but don’t be dis- agreeable. — Pat Arensberg is the Direc- tor of the Office for Evangeliza- tion and Family Life. Email him at parensberg@mobarch.org. For more information concern- ing the events of this office, visit us at mobilefaithformation.org remember many lessons that my father taught me. I recall him driving me to a high school football game and his parting words to me were, “Play with reckless abandon.” It was a good lesson and can certainly be transferred to other areas of our lives. We can live with reckless abandon, and by that, I mean live life to its fullest. In going along with that first lesson, the other side of his meaning was that while there are times to be carefree, there are also circumstances that re- quire restraint. I was a teenager and knew virtually everything there was to know. I was in an argument with one of my sib- lings. I don’t remember which sibling, or what the argument was about, but I do very clearly recall my father correcting me at the end of the argument. My dad told me, “You know, son, you can disagree with someone BEST OF THE BLOG Pat Arensberg It's OK to disagree with someone, but don't be disagreeable I n October of 2024, a group known as “Do No Harm” released the Stop the Harm Database (STHD), a searchable internet resource that compre- hensively catalogs sex change treatments performed between 2019-2023 on minors in health care facilities throughout the United States. Do No Harm profiled children’s hospitals and exam- ined their advertised services to determine which medical interventions they provide.They also analyzed insurance claims data to determine which sex change procedures each health- care facility had administered to minors.The data come from medical billing codes, which are submitted to insurance compa- nies to claim payment. The public release of the database revealed that a number of Catholic health care facilities have been involved in "gender reassignment" practices. Ac- cording to the findings, Provi- dence Health & Services, which owns 51 hospitals across seven western states, is the Catholic health system that performed the largest number of transgen- der interventions on children, carrying out 81 transgender surgeries, and prescribing hormones or puberty blockers to 113 children.The National Catholic Bioethics Center, which has years of experience in working with the same types of medical billing codes, has ana- lyzed the STHD report and is- sued a statement on its homep- age (ncbcenter.org ) addressing the report and its findings. The best interpretation of authoritative Catholic teaching and moral principles is that a person should not cause dam- age to his or her healthy body (via surgery or hormones) based on a mistaken and subjec- tive impression that he or she was “born in the wrong body.” The corollary would be that Catholic health care institutions should not perform or cooper- ate with any gender-transition- ing surgical procedures, nor provide puberty-blocking or cross-sex hormones for gender transitions. The fact that some Catholic hospitals are involved in sex re- assignment procedures reminds us of the need for continued vigilance on the part of dioce- san bishops and Catholic health care leaders when it comes to Catholic health care facilities within their purview.There may also be a need for more thor- oughgoing ethical formation for employees and administrators to assist them in countering the pro-transgender ideologi- cal messaging that has recently become commonplace. When a Catholic hospital appears in a database as having offered hormones or carried out gender reassignment surger- ies, it should be noted that this may not be indicative of current policy or practice. Some Catho- lic hospitals, for example, have had pediatric endocrinologists on staff who had prescribed pu- berty blockers or cross-sex hor- mones, but when the fact was discovered, and meetings were arranged to review and discuss the situation, the practice came to a stop.The cessation of such practices would not typically be indicated in such databases. The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services are a set of authoritative ethical guidelines prepared by the US Confer- ence of Catholic Bishops for Catholic hospitals and health care facilities. As of 2024, there was no directive dealing explicitly with transgenderism in the ERDs.The bishops are poised to address this matter in upcoming editions of the ERDs, and have offered other definitive guidance through their March 2023 “Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body.”This latter document clarifies that gender reassignment interventions are not licit, even as some Catholic hospitals may have continued to operate under the impression that definitive guidance is not yet available. Catholic hospitals clearly must hold to a higher standard than that of their secular coun- terparts. Secular hospitals may promote practices that violate human dignity, by harming, mutilating, or even ending the lives of the those whose health they are supposed to be serving and protecting. Catholic hospitals may never condone or participate in these unethical practices, whether they be vasectomies, tubal ligations, direct abor- tions or physician-assisted suicides, nor may they condone or participate in the range of practices coming under the heading of “gender transition.” This is especially important when these involve offering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, "top surgeries" and "bottom surgeries” to children and young people. Our sex is a fixed reality of our being, given by God, not a personally-negotiable or otherwise malleable quantity, even if we may face significant struggles in accepting and fully integrating this remarkable gift. To treat our human maleness or femaleness as “re-assignable” is to invite serious harm into the lives of those who may be dealing with genuine and deep- seated psychological challenges regarding their own "gender identity.”Catholic health care facilities serve the best interests of their patients with gender confusion by directing them towards supportive psycho- therapy that works to address the underlying psychiatric issues prompting them to seek gender-transition. By holding firmly to the im- permissibility of immoral pro- cedures and safeguarding their patients’ dignity in the practice of medicine, Catholic health care leaders serve the Lord’s restorative designs and assure that medical practice remains an authentically healing art. —Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D. earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, MA, and serves as Senior Ethicist at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. See www.ncbcenter.org and www.fathertad.com . Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D. MAKING SENSE OF BIOETHICS Catholic hospitals and 'gender reassignment' for minors? I