Prominent Jesuit priest appears to defend puberty blockers for children, contradicting Pope Francis
Martin posted a response to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday, in which he appeared to challenge Paxton's statement that"sex-change operations and puberty blockers prescribed to kids is ‘child abuse’ under Texas law."
Puberty blockers can irreversibly affect both primary and secondary sex characteristics of human beings, including genitalia, breasts, facial hair, menstruation and fertility in both sexes, according to the "Father Martin is a Jesuit priest, and is therefore answerable to his Jesuit superiors, not to the Archdiocese of New York," archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwelling told Fox News."Any comment on his statements should come from them, not from this archdiocese."
According to canon law, a diocesan bishop – in this case Cardinal Dolan – has final authority on suspending the faculties of clergy in his geographic jurisdiction. "Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out," according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.