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Comment by irdc | Hacker News Reader

Not a Roman Catholic but I am occasionally interested in what the Church has to say on ethical matters. What does the Church understand by "mystery of the person", and how does it relate to the assertion by the Church that, for example, gender (one aspect of the human subjective experience) can be understood purely in terms of biology?[0]

0. https://www.catholic.com/qa/the-churchs-position-on-transgen...

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“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27, ESV)

Sure, but that was before the Fall.

You have to Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive

I don’t think you can take any writing by american TV priests as gospel

Sure, another source then: https://www.vox.com/2015/2/20/8078979/pope-francis-trans-rig...

I just cannot reconcile the idea of personhood being valuable with reducing humans to mere biology.

> In January, Francis said teaching the gender theory in developing countries is “ideological colonization” by wealthier nations.

Sounds about right to be honest. The claim that being a woman or a man is merely a matter of self-declaration is indeed an ideological view that arose from the western world.

Humans are not "reduced" to biology. Their biology is presumed to "reveal" something about their personhood. And no matter how they feel about their hair, their hips, their eyes, etc. they ought to receive them as a gift from God and enter into a dialog with Him about how they ought to make use of the gifts He has given them.

However, don't you feel as though biology thereby becomes an impediment to loving the whole person?

Edit: I'm sorry, I'm being a little vague here, so let me clarify: biology is what decides our appearance, and our appearance then influences how we interact with people. If ones appearance contradicts ones inner sense of personhood, how can that person ever truly connect with other people? And if they cannot connect, then how can they love and be loved (which if I remember correctly is one of the two major commandments in your religion)?

> If ones appearance contradicts ones inner sense of personhood, how can that person ever truly connect with other people?

https://woforgmedia.wordonfire.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/0...

https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/pope-francis-and-the-ele...

And yet, if someone with such an affliction could have it fixed via medicine, they would jump at the chance. As would you, by the way. Requiring people not to because of one’s convictions is certainly the height of something and it isn’t good.

"The affliction" in his case is skin overgrowth, in the other its the dysphoria, right? But which is the moral way to cure either?

By the same token, God gives us dysphoria as a way of encouraging us to use those gifts as He intends. God made us trans people to be trans. The entire process of transition is a creative one. As much as anything else, gender dysphoria is an invitation to shape your humanity, to take some small part in the creation of your self. It is "in His image" to shape humanity, especially one's own.

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