Dutch cardinal: acceptance of trans people is like euthanasia
A leading cleric has hit out against what he derides as the growing acceptance of trans people.
Dutch cardinal Willem Eijk, of Utrecht, expressed his disapproval at what he called “the view of the body as something that is moldable”.
“It is spreading and spreading everywhere in the western world, and we have to warn people”, he said in an interview with the Catholic News Service yesterday.
He continued, “From the point of moral theology, it’s clear – you are not allowed to change your sex in this way.”
“It is like euthanasia and assisted suicide … when people first began to discuss them they were unsure”, he went on.
Seemingly failing to see the irony in his remarks, the high-ranking priest complained: “We are living in a quite intolerant society”.
“You have to think according to these modern theories or you are excluded – it’s [permeating] the university world, parliament, and the mass media”, he moaned.
A small silver lining for the many LGBT people who will likely find the cardinal’s remarks offensive may be his admission that he anticipates the waning appeal of the Catholic church within the Netherlands.
“It will be a tiny church, but a convinced one”, he said.
Earlier this year Pope Francis – who many claim is the most progressive pontiff in years – was criticised for denouncing schools that are accepting of transgender children.
The pope also condemned what he terms as the “indoctrination of gender theory” while on a visit to Georgia and Azerbaijan, categorising it as part of a “global war on the family”.
