Almost All Catholic Women’s Colleges Admit Men Who Identify as Women
When a media storm hit last fall after word leaked that a prominent Catholic women’s college in Indiana planned to admit males who identify as women, the school’s president seemed puzzled.
“We are by no means the first Catholic women’s college to adopt a policy with this scope,” Saint Mary’s College President Katie Conboy wrote in an email message to students and staff.
Conboy was right: The policy — which conflicts with Catholic Church teaching and Pope Francis’ repeated condemnation of what he calls gender ideology — has quietly become the norm at Catholic women’s colleges in the United States.
Five of the eight Catholic women’s colleges in the country explicitly say so on their websites. Two others don’t have such a statement on their sites, but an organization that aims to create “more inclusive LGBT-friendly colleges and universities” says officials at those institutions have confirmed that they accept transgender applicants.
The Register was unable to independently confirm the application policies.
The schools with these transgender policies are independently run. Even so, canon law requires that to call itself Catholic a school must be recognized as Catholic by “a competent ecclesiastical authority,” which usually means the local bishop. Thus, while most bishops don’t run Catholic colleges, they have a relationship with them within the Church.
The Register contacted spokesmen for the bishops of the dioceses where these schools are, asking for comment. Only one — the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, home of two Catholic women’s colleges — said the diocese is taking action about the gender-admissions policies.
A spokeswoman for Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki provided the Register with the archdiocese’s 2022 “Gender Theory Policy,” which states that “single-sex schools” are “restricted to persons of the designated biological sex.” The policy argues that charity demands truth and that recognizing a disconnection between biological sex and gender identity “opposes the truth of our sexual unity.”
“Our Gender Theory Policy applies to all Catholic parishes, schools, universities, colleges, and organizations that operate within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Our Policy Implementation Team is aware of some inconsistencies and is working to correct them,” said Sandra Peterson, communication director of the archdiocese, by email.
In all, there are about three dozen women’s colleges in the United States. Most of them admit biological males who identify as women.
