Anon a mouse Lee / Wikimedia Commons (left), Bishop David G. O'Connell / Facebook (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // Two bishops speaking on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a statement Feb. 6 celebrating President Donald Trump’s recent executive order blocking men from participating in women’s sports.
Bishop Robert Barron, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, and Bishop David M. O’Connell, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Catholic Education, issued the joint statement on the USSCB website.
The bishops wrote, “We welcome the President’s Executive Order that protects opportunities for women and girls to compete in sports safely and fairly.”
They added, “Consistent with the Catholic Church’s clear teaching on the equality of men and women, we reaffirm that, in education and in sports as elsewhere, policies must uphold human dignity. This includes equal treatment between women and men and affirmation of the goodness of a person’s body, which is genetically and biologically female or male.”
The bishops noted that athletics are an important opportunity to teach discipline, teamwork, and personal growth, and also serve as an opportunity to celebrate the gift of the human body.
Bishops Barron and O’Connell also stated that the Church stands against any unjust discrimination, including against those with gender dysphoria.
“Students who experience gender dysphoria bear the full measure of human dignity, and they therefore must be treated with kindness and respect,” they wrote. “Similar to their peers, those students must be assured the right to participate in or try out for co-educational activities in accord with their biological sex.”
