“Rabbi, who sinned—this man or his parents?”
Here is an invitation to be compassionate and understanding towards persons whose situation is not the fruit of their choice.
Yesterday, Maricela went to receive communion. As soon as the priest at the St Francis parish in downtown Bogotá gave her the consecrated host on her tongue, he bombastically cleaned his thumb and index finger on his sacred chasuble. Whoever did not see the over-acted gesture was blind! You see, Maricela is a transvestite. I do not think she has the money needed for hormone treatment, let alone for the operation. So, she has to fix herself as best she can. And I can tell you, she does not do a good job!
And today something worse happened. As soon as she came out of the pew to go in line to receive communion, one of my dear sisters in Christ intercepted her and asked her whether she had gone for confession.
Confession?
Why?
Is it a sin that Maricela was born XY but thinks or feels that she is XX?
Whose fault is it?
Hers or her parents?
“Rabbi, who sinned—this man or his parents?” (John 9:2)
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As I have already mentioned a few months ago, part of my job at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles was to minister to the gays, transsexuals, transvestites and transgender who were waiting their trial. At the time there were two big dorms with about one hundred and fifty inmates in each. I would conduct a weekly communion service to those who voluntarily came for it and then, once or twice a week, I would see them and counsel them in our chaplain’s office. There was a broad spectrum of men. The ones who looked and acted like men and who liked other men, to the ones who already looked and acted like women but whose anatomical features were still those of men (and that is why they were still housed in a men’s jail). In a way, it was fun to minister to them, because most of them were not in for big charges like murder, but rather drug-related crimes and prostitution, so, they took everything with a pinch of salt. Many times, they even joked about their condition and the environment they were living in.
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Brother Carmel Duca MC
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