A Catholic diocese in the U.S. has shown support for a monk who announced this month that he was coming out as transgender.
On Tuesday, the Catholic Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, issued a statement responding to the recent announcement by Brother Christian Matson, a Catholic monk in Kentucky, who publicly said he was a transgender individual on Pentecost Sunday.
"Brother Christian has long sought to consecrate his life to Christ in the Church by living the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. He has consistently been accompanied by a competent spiritual director and has undergone formation in the Benedictine tradition," the statement from the diocese said.
"He does not seek ordination, but has professed a rule of life that allows him to support himself financially by continuing his work in the arts and to live a life of contemplation in a private hermitage. Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., accepted his profession and is grateful to Brother Christian for his witness of discipleship, integrity and contemplative prayer for the Church," the statement added.
Last week, Matson spoke with the Religious News Service, following approval from the bishop, and said that he was planning to come out as transgender.
"You've got to deal with us, because God has called us into this church," Matson told the outlet. "It's not your church to kick us out of—this is God's church, and God has called us and engrafted us into it."
The Vatican published a 20-page declaration last month titled the "Infinite Dignity," in which Pope Francis discussed the Catholic Church's views on transgender individuals. The declaration said God created men and women as biologically different beings, and that no one should try to alter that plan or "make oneself God."
The Vatican said that gender-affirming surgery violates God's gift of human dignity as attempting to play God on the surgeon's table during a "sex-change intervention."
According to the Religious News Service, Matson converted to Catholicism in 2010, four years after he underwent his transition. Matson was later rejected by many Catholic communities, after being advised to consider becoming a diocesan hermit.
In 2020, Stowe received a letter from Matson and the bishop expressed openness to allowing him to join his diocese, the Religious News Service reported.
"My willingness to be open to him is because it's a sincere person seeking a way to serve the church. Hermits are a rarely used form of religious life ... but they can be either male or female," Stowe told the outlet.
Newsweek has contacted Stowe for comment via a contact form on the Diocese of Lexington's website.
Matson became a diocesan hermit within the Diocese of Lexington in 2022, and renewed his vows in 2023, the Religious News Service reported.
Newsweek previously reached out to the Vatican via email for comment, and Matson declined to comment after Newsweek reached out via email.