Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San
Francisco has criticized gender transitions as threatening the
foundation of the church's faith.
“The clear biological fact is that a
human being is born either male or female,” Cordileone told a Sacra
Liturgia conference audience in New York.
“Yet now we have the idea gaining
acceptance that biological sex and one's personal gender identity can
be at variance with each other, with more and more gender identities
being invented.”
Cordileone, who spearheads the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) opposition to marriage
equality, made his comments just three days after Caitlyn Jenner –
now the most famous transgender woman in America – made her debut
on the cover of Vanity Fair.
While he did not mention Jenner by
name, it would be nearly impossible to say that his comments weren't
directed at the growing interest – now at high boil with Jenner's
cover – in gender identity.
“Gender ideology,” Cordileone
said, poses a threat to society and to the faith.
“That is because God has used
marriage as the primary sacred sign of our relationship with him,”
he explained.
“It's all the story of a marriage.
God's marriage covenant with Israel is fulfilled in the blood of
Christ on the cross, establishing the new and eternal covenant
between him, the bridegroom, and his bride, the church.”
“When the culture can no longer
comprehend those natural truths, then the very foundation of our
teaching evaporates and nothing we have to offer will make sense,”
he said.