(LifeSiteNews) — A sister in Missouri said that she has been hosting meetings for Catholic parents who affirm their children’s gender confusion, according to a recent interview.
Sr. Nancy Corcoran, CSJ, age 81, told St. Louis Public Radio how she dispensed with Catholic teaching on sex and gender to begin “supporting” children who identify as the opposite sex.
A turning point for Corcoran was her first meeting with a “transgender” student as she was teaching a college course 10 years ago. The sister called it “a moment of revelation.” She decided to take a sabbatical to learn more about transgender issues, according to heretical “Catholic” group New Ways Ministry.
“Nancy, you’re blind and stupid in an area that is making a big difference to people’s lives, and so you need to learn,” Corcoran said she reflected to herself at the time. She took two years to speak to gender-confused individuals and their families and travel to conferences on the topic.
Once she came back to St. Louis, she began to attend “TransParent” meetings, a support group for parents who want to affirm their children’s gender confusion.
Corcoran was silent at first during meetings. When she finally introduced herself, it was a “moment of grace,” according to the sister.
“I just said, ‘I need to tell you all that I’m a Roman Catholic nun, and I have so learned from you all,’” she recalled.
“I’d never learned about unconditional love in the convent, but going to the TransParent meetings, I learned about unconditional love.”
Her disclosure is tragic given that while unconditional love is not assured from any human being, it is an outstanding gift of God to humanity, and is understood as such by Catholics. The vocation of sisters and nuns is oriented primarily toward the service and love of God.
Corcoran eventually began to host meetings at the motherhouse of her order, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Louis, without the sanction of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, according to New Ways Ministry. The Archdiocese of St. Louis has indeed distanced itself from the order and its activities. Its Executive Director of Communications, Brecht Mulvihill, told LifeSiteNews, “This program is not affiliated with the Archdiocese of the St. Louis in any respect.”
Corcoran said that about two dozen Catholic-identifying parents regularly attend these meetings where “They eat, they talk about being Catholic, work and being affirming parents.”
The sister says she knows 40 families who have left Missouri due to “non-affirming” transgender policies that in fact protect children. Missouri has banned the transgender mutilation of children and the participation of gender-confused youth in opposite-sex school sports up through college.
Corcoran anticipates that the Church will change its approach to transgender issues. “Yes, of course the Church will change,” she claimed, according to New Ways Ministry.
A real change in Church teaching on transgender issues is impossible, since it is founded on God’s natural law. Sacred Scripture affirms the created reality of sexual difference as grounded in divine will and not subject to human alteration. God created the human person “male and female” (Gen 1:27), a truth reaffirmed by Christ Himself (Mt 19:4), while elsewhere the Bible reads: “A woman shall not be clothed with man’s apparel, neither shall a man use woman’s apparel: for he that doeth these things is abominable before God” (Deut 22:5).