Katie Conboy via Facebook
CV NEWS FEED // A Catholic women’s college that recently began accepting males who claim to be female sent an email to students on December 13 asking for feedback and announcing that the administration has started an “ongoing dialogue” with Bishop Kevin Rhoades.
Rhoades is the bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, where Saint Mary’s College is located.
As CatholicVote reported, the women’s school in Notre Dame, Indiana recently updated its nondiscrimination policy to include “undergraduate applicants whose sex is female or who consistently live and identify as women.”
Rhoades immediately criticized the controversial policy change.
“It is disappointing that I, as bishop of the diocese in which Saint Mary’s College is located, was not included or consulted on a matter of important Catholic teaching,” he wrote in a November 27 statement. “I urge the Board of Trustees of Saint Mary’s College to correct its admissions policy in fidelity to the Catholic identity and mission it is charged to protect.”
He further urged the college to “reject ideologies of gender that contradict the authoritative teachings of the Catholic Church regarding the human person, sex and gender.”
In an internal email to students obtained by CatholicVote, President Katie Conboy wrote that the “past few weeks have been difficult … as people reacted to the updated nondiscrimination policy.”
“I want you to know that the Board of Trustees and I are deeply committed to Saint Mary’s as a Catholic women’s college,” Conboy wrote. “This is our identity, the most enduring expression of who we are, and it must never change.”
“What also must never change is our ongoing commitment to the work of inclusion and equity, including the work we’ve done with the LGBTQ+ Center, SAGE, and Pride SMC,” Conboy continued. “Today, I want to express my emphatic support for all members of our queer, non-binary, and trans communities. Our College is better and stronger because you are here!”
Conboy assured students that discrimination or harassment because of sexual identity will not be tolerated. She also added that she has met with “various groups” about the nondiscrimination policy, including students, prior campus minister and president of the Sisters of the Holy Cross Sister M. Veronique (Wiedower), CSC, and Rhoades.
Conboy explained that she and Rhoades had agreed that the email to students would be the last statement on the matter until the two discuss it further.
Conboy concluded by asking students to submit feedback on the nondiscrimination policy, stating the college understands “you may want to tell us what you think, express support, express a worry, as a question that you don’t know where to ask, or describe what you are experiencing on campus.”
“I look forward to continued campus dialogue in the new year,” Conboy wrote.
