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Polish bishops reiterate church teaching on LGBT, gender ideology
By Jonathan Luxmoore, Catholic News Service
September 2, 2020
WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's bishops called on Catholics to show respect for people connected with the LGBT movement, but urged them to resist LGBT calls for a "social and cultural transformation" in conflict with church teaching.
"The church is not afraid to proclaim the duty of respect for everyone's personal dignity, including those linked to LGBT+. For the same reasons, however, it must also show reserve and, in some cases, clear opposition to gender ideology and forms of activism by LGBT movements which negate the truth about humanity, as well as to their social projects and declared aims," said a 27-page document released Aug. 28.
The document said Pope Francis had personally demonstrated that the Catholic Church was open to dialogue with "every person of goodwill who seeks the truth."
However, this did not mean "uncritical acceptance" of LGBT views, the bishops added, or avoiding "a clear presentation of church teaching on gender ideology and on practices against nature and human dignity."
"The right of a person to self-define their sex without reference to objective criteria set out in their genome and anatomy means giving primacy to social-cultural sex over biological sex," the document added.
The bishops' document said the Polish church would support the opening of clinics for LGBT people experiencing "hardship, suffering and spiritual breakdown," who wished "to regain their sexual health and natural sexual orientation."
"Any acts of physical or verbal violence against LGBT people are unacceptable, as are all forms hooliganism and aggression," said the 105-point bishops' conference document, which quoted papal encyclicals and Vatican documents.
The document was published as the Polish bishops completed an Aug. 27-29 plenary at the Jasna Gora national sanctuary, with a statement reiterating their commitment to an "honest and consistent accounting" for sexual abuse by clergy, as well to helping abuse victims and exposing neglect by church leaders.