Loyola University, despite being a Catholic institution, has a class that teaches about the pros and cons of transgender medical operations on children.
The Chicago-based university describes itself as a “diverse community seeking God in all things and working to expand knowledge in the service of humanity through justice, learning and faith.” It is named after Saint Ignatius of Loyola, a Spanish Catholic priest who went on to found one of Christianity’s most famous religious orders, the Jesuits. Despite the name however, the university has made headlines multiple times for policies that go against Catholic social teaching.
Part of the college’s selection of classes is a two-week course on “LGBTQ+ Health,” whose stated goal is to “teach students the evidence-based treatment of LGBTQ+ patients in medicine.”
Students in this course read and discuss topics relevant to LGBTQ+ health care, such as “initiation and maintenance of PrEP, initiation and maintenance of hormones for transgender patients, transgender children/adolescents healthcare, and gender confirmation surgery.”
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The course description adds that “Students will try to shadow in clinics where the majority of patients identify as LGBTQ+” to the point these students will eventually “be able to comfortably discuss the pros and cons of various treatments and approaches to LGBTQ+ health with patients and with colleagues.”
The College Fix (The Fix), who wrote about this course and contacted faculty to inquire about its nature, spoke to an ethicist about its implications at a Catholic university.
“Psychological distress should be treated through therapy, not radical body modification into a facsimile of the opposite sex,” Nathanael Blake told The Fix. “Chemical and surgical transition procedures have many side effects and a high rate of often-serious complications.”
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“Though this course promises to ‘teach students the evidence-based treatment of LGBTQ+ patients’ we know that transition, especially for children, is not evidence based, which is why there has been a wave of European nations restricting pediatric transition after reviewing the evidence,” Blake said.
He noted further that Pope Francis, the current leader of the Roman Catholic Church, “has been clear in his condemnation of gender ideology, and Catholic universities should follow his instruction.”
Pope Francis has warned that “Gender ideology, today, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations.” Previously, Pope Francis compared phenomena like gender theory to nuclear arms, warning that each era has its tyrannical leaders that “disfigure the face of man and woman, destroying creation.”
Loyola University Chicago did not respond to request for comment in time for publication.