For years, the Roman Catholic Church has been in desperate need of theological and pastoral resources to guide its response to the growing visibility and spiritual needs of transgender people. Trans Life and the Catholic Church Today is a major step in the right direction. The volume brings together more than a dozen contributors who “explore a broad approach (or set of approaches) to transness that suggests the possibility of mutual receptivity between two broad groups (i.e., the Roman Catholic Church and trans community) that are often assumed to have very little say to one another” (15). Writers range from bioethics expert David Albert Jones to Catholic teacher and ministry leader George White to Lonergan specialist Benjamin Hohman. Without sugarcoating challenges, the tome strikes a hopeful tone and creates possibilities for future dialogue.
The leading voice in the collection is Nicolete Burbach, who, in addition to penning two essays, also authors the introduction. Burbach is the Social and Environmental Justice Lead at the London Jesuit Centre, who in 2024 organized “The Church and ‘Gender Theory’: Theory, Rhetoric and Practice,” a conference that grappled with Catholicism’s relationship to the complexities of transgender life. Though an early career scholar, her prolific writing and advocacy have made her one of the most visible openly trans Catholics in academic theology.
Trans Life and the Catholic Church Today is divided into four sections: “Transness: Catholic Moral Theologians in Dialogue,” “Personal and Pastoral Experiences,” “Interdisciplinary Resources,” and “Transness and the Church Tomorrow.” Ethics dominate many of the essays, but there is no shortage of ecclesiological, anthropological, historical, metaphysical, biblical, and pastoral insights as well. A major gift of this volume is its sustained dialogue with contemporary medicine, science, and trans experience, something sorely lacking in magisterial interventions. Most importantly, several of the authors are themselves trans.
One of the volume’s greatest strengths is its rigorous theology. It does not water down Catholicism in favor of a culturally assimilationist agenda but rather holds theological and spiritual tradition in dialectical tension with transgender realities. This yields surprising outcomes that challenge people of all ideological persuasions. Jones, for example, concludes his first essay on “Gender Identity in Scripture” with the bold claim that his analysis “accepts as authoritative the received Catholic understanding of heteronormativity in marriage, sexual union and procreation. Nevertheless, it implies that, without departing from the tradition, it is possible for a Catholic Christian to affirm transgender identities both binary and nonbinary” (39).
Essays range in their readability for popular audiences. Some are more suited to graduate-level, theory-laden coursework in theology and sexuality and gender studies, whereas others will be useful for laypeople laboring in parish and school settings. The collection’s interdisciplinarity makes it useful for readers from diverse academic backgrounds. Chapters on the Anglican church’s approach to gender diverse people and the British anti-hijra campaign in India move the scope of study beyond Catholic concerns, a helpful reminder that the struggle for trans flourishing transcends denominational and national boundaries.
Though many of the essays in Trans Life and the Catholic Church Today reflect the circumstances and particularities of Pope Francis’s pontificate, the book offers several trans-affirming directions that Catholic tradition and community could take in the future. It is a must-read for any church leader in a local, diocesan, or universal position of authority who is considering new policies and doctrines that affect trans people. As LGBTQIA+ and allied Catholics work for the development of Catholic beliefs and practices that will be life-giving for transgender people, this collection offers seeds of reflection that could yield a harvest of constructive change.
