Dr. Vivencio O. Ballano

Applying Pope Francis’s synodal theological approach and sociological arguments, this chapter aims to unpack fact from fiction in the Catholic Church’s concept of “gender ideology.” It specifically clarifies the nature of gender, ideology, gender theory, and feminist gender theory in sociology. It argues that the Catholic Church’s adoption of a strictly philosophical approach to morality is a primary factor in the misconception of the true nature of the sociological and feminist views on gender and gender theory that are present in gender ideology. It recommends a synodal dialogue between Catholic moral theologians and gender sociologists and feminists to reconcile conflicting views and achieve inculturated synodal moral teachings.

This chapter aims to sociologically clarify Pope Francis’s inductive synodal theology in his latest church reform project known as the Synod on Synodality and its role for resolving the current popular moral issues in the Catholic Church such as homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and LGBTQI inclusivity. It argues that deciding moral issues should not begin deductively from with some abstract and immutable formulas or theories such as the natural law theory. Instead, it should commence inductively with human experience, accurately reading people’s moral actions and personal motives through scientific sociological method before moral judgment and action as suggested by Francis’s inductive synodal approach. This shift necessitates a living Church tradition that constantly evaluates the evolving cultures of moral issues as well as applies inductive sociological research before theological reflection or moral analysis. Ultimately, it suggests an intensive sociological and social science training for clerics and theologians to achieve a science-based Catholic gender morality and realize Pope Francis’s inductive synodal theology in the Catholic Church.

This article investigates why clerical abuse of Catholic priests persists in the Church using the sociological and normative pluralist perspectives. It analyzes how the various informal normative standards of the Church— doctrinal, ethical, or biblical—affect the enforcement of Canon Law on clerical abuse by bishops, particularly on how they decide on specific cases on the diocesan level. It also investigates how the cultural values and norms influence the bishop’s decision whether to sanction erring priests or not or to prosecute abuse cases in civil courts. Unlike the state, the Church has no professional judicial system with a set of legal codes, a hierarchy of ecclesial judges and prosecutors, as well as a comprehensive penal law to assess cases of clerical abuse objectively following the principle of “rule of law.” Thus, the informal norms of mercy and compassion, eternal character of the priesthood, camaraderie in the ministry among priests, and other cultural values and norms in the local culture, tend to dominate over the strict penal provisions of the Canon Law against clerical abuse in the bishops’ investigation and decision. Faced with multiple normative criteria in judging abuse cases and given the wide ecclesial powers given to them by the Church, local bishops then acquire more discretionary powers to keep investigations of clerical abuse internally in the spirit of evangelical mercy and compassion in order to preserve Church’s unity and fellowship of the clergy. This strategy, however, slows down the filing of clerical abuses cases in civil courts and faces the risk of being seen by victims and Church members as a cover-up and grave injustice.

This chapter explores how the quantitative and qualitative research methods of sociology and inductive synodal theology of Pope Francis can be utilized to resolve contemporary moral issues in his latest ecclesial reform project called the Synod on Synodality. It explores how universal polls and surveys to be done through Catholic research networks can prepare the synod to understand the general sentiment of all Catholics on urgent moral issues such as homosexuality, same-sex union, and LGBTQI inclusivity. It also recommends the use of the sociological qualitative research methods in the churchwide synodal consultations and roundtable discussions on these issues to validate and triangulate survey results to resolve them inductively in spirit of Francis’s synodality. It argues that resolving contemporary moral issues in the Catholic Church requires synodal listening, sociological research methods, and synodal forum between Catholic moral theologians and sociologists to achieve Pope Francis’s synodal Church.

This chapter aims to sociologically unpack and clarify the Catholic Church’s concept of “gender ideology” and analyze the morality of gender-enhancing treatment and surgical procedures in light of Pope Francis’s synodal inductive approach. It argues that the traditional philosophical moral approach grounded in natural law theory is inadequate to morally analyze these contemporary sexual issues. It recommends the sociological approach of inquiring into the motives and not just the meaning of these “unnatural” external acts before passing moral judgment, and applying the principle of double effect to understand the morality of transgenderism, gender-enhancing treatment, and transgender sexuality to resolve the moral panic of “gender ideology” in the Catholic Church.

This chapter provides the book’s social background, research gap, objective, sociological approach, methodology, theoretical foundation, and general argument. Applying sociological-theological perspectives and utilizing the qualitative secondary research method, it contends that resolving some urgent moral issues in the Catholic Church such as homosexuality, same-sex union, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersexual (LGBTQI) inclusivity, which are frequently alluded by Pope Francis in his new ecclesial project called Synod on Synodality, requires an inductive theological approach and in-depth sociological study of their moral situations before moral judgment and social action can be done to resolve them in the synod.

This book employs an experimental approach to critically re-examine the Catholic Church’s traditional teachings on homosexuality, heterosexual marriage, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersexual (LGBTQI) inclusivity in light of Pope Francis’s inductive synodal theology and modern sociology. With the growing complexity of today’s culture and the advancement of social science research, it argues that the empirical foundations of the traditional Church’s doctrines on topical moral issues need to be scientifically re-assessed, so as to update them in view of Francis’s synodality and sociological research on gender, sexuality, and same-sex union. Discussion pertaining to whether homosexuality is naturally disordered and whether heterosexuality is the only criterion for Christian marriage remain lingering empirical issues in the Church that require a sociological and inductive synodal analysis, rather than the traditional deductive philosophical and theological method that is largely based on natural law theory. This topical book is of appeal to scholars and students of sociology, theology, as well as religious, biblical, and gender studies.

This chapter critically examines the alleged threat of the Roman Catholic Church’s concept of “gender ideology” to the family as the basic social unit in society, using sociological perspectives and Pope Francis’s inductive synodal approach. It argues that the Catholic Church has gravely misunderstood gender in the sociological and feminist research literature and that its allegation of a threat to the family is conceptual rather than actual, constituting a moral panic or exaggeration rather than a real danger. It contends that the real cause or “folk devil” is not gender but the epistemological threat posed by the sociological and feminist concept of gender and gender diversity to the natural law moral framework of the Catholic Church. It recommends inculturation and the adoption of a sociological moral framework to dissolve the alleged threat.

Applying Pope Francis’s inductive synodal approach and sociological perspectives, this chapter explores how the four major cognitive structures contribute to the persistence of internalized and institutional homophobia in the Roman Catholic Church, namely, the (1) deductive philosophical approach to morality based on the Thomistic natural law theory, (2) ecclesial metaphysical view of sex and gender as immutably united and inseparable, ignoring social science research, (3) rigid interpretation of heteronormativity and gender complementarity in traditional church doctrines, as well as the (4) traditional gender and sexuality education and formation of Catholic clerics that socially reproduced institutional homophobia. It argues that the Catholic Church should apply the inductive synodal-sociological approach to Catholic morality, which is open to sociological research on sex, gender, homosexuality, and same-sex union in order to achieve Francis’s inclusive synodal church and overcome the institutional homophobia in the Catholic Church.

Applying an experimental approach that combines Pope Francis’s inductive synod theological method and sociological perspectives, this chapter analyzes the empirical foundations of homosexuality, homosexual union, and gender diversity in the contemporary world as well as the Catholic Church’s deductive theological approach for resolving moral issues based on natural law theory. It argues that deciding the urgent gender moral issues on gender diversity, same-sex union, and full inclusion of the LGBTQI group in the Church in light of Pope Francis’s inductive synodal theology requires listening to nonbinary people’s lived experiences and accurately learning from them through scientific sociological research before passing moral judgment and initiating ecclesial action to resolve them. It recommends that the Catholic Church should revisit and update the empirical foundation of its traditional moral teachings on sex, gender, and gender complementarity to integrate the gay community in Church in order to achieve Francis’s inclusive synodal church.

In applying the inductive synodal approach and sociological perspectives, this chapter aims to sociologically unpack so-called “gender ideology” in the Catholic Church, distinguishing the fundamental differences between the Church’s philosophical–theological understanding of gender, sexuality, and gender theory and those of sociology and the social sciences. It aims to find common ground to understand gender between the Church’s moral magisterium and the social sciences in an attempt to update the traditional moral approach in spirit of Pope Francis’s synodality and inductive theology. It argues that the synodal-sociological approach offers new hope for the Church to achieve a more empirical, inculturated, and nuanced view of gender and sexuality in the contemporary world, despite Francis’s strong opposition to “gender ideology.”

This chapter analyzes the moral situation and empirical foundation of the emerging transgender sexuality in the contemporary world and how a synodal church as envisioned by Pope Francis in his Synod on Synodality can resolve transgenderism in the Catholic Church. Using Francis’s inductive theology and sociological perspectives as the conceptual guide, it attempts to assess the morality of sex change that uses the modern medical technology. It contends that the synodal and sociological approach can guide the synod to appropriately judge the transgender sexuality of the LGBTQI community beyond appearance and external acts to understand motives of why transgenders resort to sex change for social acceptance in the Church and society.

This chapter sociologically argues that the Catholic Church needs to inculturate or adapt sociological concepts of gender diversity and LGBTQI inclusivity in its moral teachings as a synodal response to the call of postmodern times. It specifically contends that gender diversity has existed in human culture since ancient times but is only today in the public eye due to the growing pro-gender and LGBTQI social movements of the current age. Now is the time for the Catholic Church to update its philosophical natural law moral framework on sex and gender and adopt sociological and social science gender research and perspectives to fully welcome the LGBTQI community into the Church.

This chapter sociologically investigates the Roman Catholic Church’s moral panic on the alleged threats of the so-called “gender ideology” to the welfare of children in same-sex families, using Pope Francis’s synodal approach and drawing on secondary literature, media reports, and Church documents. It argues that the alleged threats of homosexual couples in same-sex families to the children’s welfare are an exaggeration and moral panic in the sociological sense. It contends that negative perception of same-sex parenthood on the children’s welfare is largely a structural influence of societal homophobia and social discrimination against same-sex parents under the rigid gender complementary and heterosexual standards of the Catholic Church’s moral magisterium, founded on the philosophical approach of natural law theory. It recommends a synodal openness to diverse family structures and definitions of children’s welfare and a reappraisal of the empirical foundations of the gender complementarity interpretation of Genesis.

This article explores the major factors that negatively affect the corporate moral responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry to promote human dignity and the common good during COVID-19 applying the ethical lens of Catholic social teaching and structural analysis of sociology. Utilizing textual data from published peer-reviewed articles, books, and media and church documents, it argues that the financialization of Big Pharma and the weakening of state regulation due to conflict of interests and unethical campaign contributions by the pharmaceutical industry to American legislators have resulted in corporate moral irresponsibility and the weakening of state regulation against profiteering in the sale of anti-COVID medicines and vaccines that can harm human dignity and the common good. It provides some recommendations on how to strengthen the state and non-state regulatory systems to protect human dignity and the common good during COVID-19.

This chapter reappraises the Catholic Church’s traditional moral teaching on gender complementarity and gender criteria in heterosexual marriage in light of Pope Francis’s inductive synodal theology and modern sociology to explore the moral acceptability of same-sex union in the Church. Specifically, it investigates the empirical foundation of the gender complementarity in the book of Genesis, which has become the essential condition for Christian marriage. It argues that the human author/s of Genesis only understood gender as biological reality rather than saw it as a social and cultural experience in society in their biblical message. This chapter recommends a sociological reevaluation of the empirical basis of gender complementarity and heterosexual marriage in the Catholic Church to allow the full acceptance of same-sex union and full lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersexual (LGBTQI) inclusivity in the Christian community.

This chapter introduces the main arguments, methodology, and theoretical foundation of the book, together with an overview of the social background, research gap, and contribution to the literature. The book is a critical investigation of what has been called “gender ideology” (GI) in the Catholic Church as a moral panic, and of its alleged serious threats to humanity, family, children’s welfare, and human dignity. Both Pope Francis’s synodality and inductive synodal theology, and sociological perspectives on gender, gender theory, gender diversity, and LGBTQI inclusivity are explored. The chapter outlines the major areas of conflict between the proponents of GI, led by Catholic bishops and moral theologians, and advocates of gender diversity, led by pro-gender sociologists, feminists, activists, and LGBTQI leaders, seeking to find common ground for synodal dialogue and inculturation.

This chapter sociologically unpacks the Catholic Church’s concept of “gender ideology” and its alleged imminent threat to humanity’s survival in light of Pope Francis’s latest ecclesiastical reform project, the Synod on Synodality, and his inductive synodal theology. It argues that the concept of gender as espoused by sociologists, feminists, LGBTQI leaders, and gender activists does not inflict actual and imminent harm on humanity, but poses a serious epistemological challenge to the Church’s traditional, metaphysical, and philosophical view of sex, gender, and gender complementarity, which is based on the Thomistic natural law theory, resulting in strong moral panic among members of the Catholic hierarchy against sociological and feminist gender perspectives and their labelling of gender theory as “gender ideology.”

This chapter provides four major proposals to attain greater inclusivity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersexual (LGBTQI) community in the Roman Catholic Church, applying Pope Francis’s synodality, inductive synodal theology, and sociological analysis. It proposes a (1) structural cognitive change in the traditional church teaching on homosexuality and gender identity, (2) synodal consultation between Catholic theologians and sociologists to update the traditional gender moral teachings, (3) greater participation of sociologists and the gay community in Pope Francis’s Synod on Synodality’s roundtable discussions, and an (4) intimate dialogue between Catholic bishops and the LGBTQI representatives in synodal consultations to generate greater ecclesial resistance against the social discrimination and victimization of the gay community in society as well as against institutional homophobia in the Catholic Church.

This chapter sociologically explores how the Catholic Church’s teaching on human dignity can be applied in the field of sex and gender in today’s contemporary world in accordance with Pope Francis’s inductive synodal theology and the Vatican’s declaration on human dignity known as Dignitas Infinita [Infinite Dignity]. It argues that teaching on human dignity is central to the Christian faith for Catholics and must always be observed in resolving moral issues. However, in the spirit of Francis’s inductive theology, the application of this teaching in concrete cases such as the morality of gender-enhancing treatment and sex change requires inductive synodal and sociological assessment to scientifically describe the complex moral situation and motives of actors. The chapter also sociologically re-examines the empirical basis of Genesis on gender complementarity—the root cause of why transgenderism, gender-enhancing treatment, and sex change are generally seen as violative of human dignity.

Applying the Roman Catholic Church's set of moral principles on social concerns called Catholic social teaching (CST) on charity, distributive justice, private property and the common good, and utilising some secondary data and scientific literature, this article argues that establishing distributive justice for the global distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines must be a priority than donating millions of doses in the name of charity to address vaccine scarcity. Catholic social teaching teaches that the right to private property is a basic right but has moral limits and is subordinated to the moral principles on the universal destination of earth's goods and the common good. CONTRIBUTION: The current COVID-19 vaccines are developed by people and organisations outside the pharmaceutical companies and largely funded using taxpayers' money. Thus, by virtue of justice, these vaccines must belong to all nations as global public health goods. Patents are to be suspended to allow poor countries to reproduce the popular vaccines and address the current vaccine shortage.