Saint Mary’s College of Notre Dame (Indiana), a Catholic women’s college, finally reversed its plan to accept transgender men who had previously identified as “women,” according to The Observer weekly.
The media reported that, according to an email signed by Katie Conboy, president of the university, and Maureen Karantz Smith, the president of the Board, the college will no longer consider transgender applicants.
The email was sent to faculty, staff, students and alumni Thursday morning. The final decision, according to the statement, was made due to the pressure and reaction of the collegiate community that had opposed the first decision of the Board dating back to last June.
“It is increasingly clear, however, that the position we took is not shared by all members of our community. Some worried that this was much more than a policy decision: they felt it was a dilution of our mission or even a threat to our Catholic identity,” Conboy and Smith wrote in the email, thus reversing their decision to accept transgender men at the women’s college.
“We clearly underestimated our community’s genuine desire to be engaged in the process of shaping a policy of such significance,” the officials continued. “As this last month unfolded, we lost people’s trust and unintentionally created division where we had hoped for unity.”
The decision comes a week after Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop Kevin Rhoades wrote a letter to university officials asking them to reconsider the move.
Father Rhoades, in a critical tone, questioned the university’s decision because, in his opinion, the measure supported the belief that sexual identity is based on the subjective experience of the individual and not on biological facts.
“This ideology is at odds with Catholic teaching,” said Rhoades, who also chastised the college for not including him in the policy change process.
