Why Catholicism and Trans Ideology Cannot Coexist

Photo by Lala Azizli (source)

Sojourners has published yet another sermon dressed as scholarship, claiming Catholic tradition has always embraced transgender identities. It is a soothing story for those desperate to reconcile irreconcilables. But it is not Catholicism. It is not tradition. And it is not truth.

Max Kuzma tells us that transitioning unlocked spiritual clarity, that only after adopting a new name and hormones did God’s voice grow louder. The narrative is nonsensical, entirely detached from biblical reality. The Church has never taught that mutilating the body is a means of hearing God. Catholicism has long condemned such distortions. Self-harm is not sanctification. To say otherwise is to rewrite doctrine with the ink of ideology.

The essay leans on personal testimony. A deeper voice, new hair growth, a “true self” now revealed. These are presented as proof of peace, but peace in Catholic terms is not a chemical trick. It is not a cosmetic effect. Peace is the fruit of aligning one’s life with God’s law. The Catechism is clear: our bodies are gifts, not clay to be endlessly reshaped to fit passing moods or modern movements.

When Kuzma insists that transgenderism is not an ideology but a lived reality, the argument collapses under its own weight. If reality were simply whatever one experienced, then every delusion would demand affirmation. A man who insists he is Napoleon is not cured by being handed an empire. Catholicism exists precisely to remind us that feelings are not infallible, that truth does not bend to the self.

The text shifts quickly from memoir to politics. A federal ruling on health coverage is painted as cruelty. Laws defending biological reality are called errors. The implication is that unless the state funds surgeries and drugs, it is guilty of persecution. But Catholic teaching has never confused refusal with violence. Declining to underwrite delusion is not an act of oppression. The Church has no duty to subsidize a lie.