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Archbishop Wilton Gregory

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – The new Archbishop of Washington D.C. told a female who identifies as a man and who claims to be a practicing Catholic that as a transgender person she belongs to the “heart” of the Church and fits right in “the family.”

Archbishop Wilton Gregory, the successor of disgraced Cardinal Donald Wuerl, was the featured guest of the local Theology on Tap on August 13. After a brief introductory interview, the new archbishop took questions from the floor.

Off-camera, a person who identified herself as “Rory” — and who said she  “worships” with the pro-homosexual group Dignity Washington — asked Gregory “what place do I, as a confirmed transgender Catholic – what place do my queer friends have here at this diocese?” 

Gregory responded to the question by saying: “You belong to the heart of this Church. And there is nothing that you may do, may say, that will ever rip you from the heart of this Church. There is a lot that has been said to you, about you, behind your back, that is painful and is sinful.”

“And so that’s why I mentioned my conversations with Fortunate Families. We have to find a way to talk to one another. And to talk to one another, not just from one perspective, but to talk and to listen to one another. I think that’s the way that Jesus ministered. He engaged people, he took them where they were at, and He invited them to go deeper, closer to God,” he continued.

“So if you’re asking me where do you fit? You fit in the family,” he added.

Gregory’s warm affirmation of a female attempting to pass herself off as “male” is at odds with a recent public Declaration of Catholic Truths signed by Cardinal Raymond Burke, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, and three other bishops that called it a “grave sin” for a man or a woman to attempt to change his or her sex.  

“The male and female sexes, man and woman, are biological realities created by the wise will of God (see Gen. 1: 27; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 369),” the prelates state in their June 2019 declaration.

“It is, therefore, a rebellion against natural and Divine law and a grave sin that a man may attempt to become a woman by mutilating himself, or even by simply declaring himself to be such, or that a woman may in like manner attempt to become a man, or to hold that the civil authority has the duty or the right to act as if such things were or may be possible and legitimate (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2297),” they add.

Learn more about Archbishop Gregory’s views and past actions by visiting FaithfulShepherds.com. Click here.

DignityUSA, the umbrella group to which “Rory” belongs as a member of Dignity Washington, is a pro-LGBT organization that dissents from Church teaching on sexuality. Its goal is to change Catholic teaching that calls homosexual acts “intrinsically disordered” and “acts of grave depravity,” and that moreover, calls the homosexual inclination “objectively disordered.” The group, founded by Augustinian priest Pat Nidorf in 1969, has been banned from several dioceses. It should not be confused with Courage, which is entirely faithful to the teachings of the Church.

To hearty applause and whoops from the audience, “Rory” told the Archbishop that “we’d love to extend that bridge you were talking about, we’d love to invite you to Mass.”

During his answer to the “transgender” person, Gregory mentioned “Fortunate Families.” He had previously mentioned his involvement with the group.

“When I was the Bishop of Atlanta, I was invited into a conversation with a group of parents who had sons and daughters who were gay and lesbian,” Gregory said.

“They invited me ― and I’m grateful that they did ― to be in dialogue with them … to have me tell them, first of all, that they have to love their children and that the Church had to love their children,” he said.

“That group was called Fortunate Families. It’s a loosely knit national group. I was happy to do that.”

Fortunate Families, founded in 1992, is a dissident Catholic organization that supports homosexual “marriage,” has called on Pope Francis to give “full acceptance” to “LGBT people” in the Catholic Church, and has blasphemed the Blessed Virgin by posting a picture of her to social media draped in a rainbow flag. 

Gregory has a long history of showing support for homosexuality, including personally inviting pro-LGBT Vatican adviser Fr. James Martin to give a speech in his diocese about “showing welcome and respect in our parishes to LGBT Catholics,” permitting the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Atlanta to act as a center for LGBT events, including hosting LGBT potluck socials and participating n the city’s Pride Parade, and appointing a publicly pro-homosexual priest who heads a LGBT-affirming parish to be the diocesan spiritual director for victims of sexual abuse by clergy.