In his interview with EWTN News In Depth, Coakley said his document is “seeking a broader audience [of] parents, teachers, pastors, anyone who’s accompanying, working with young people.”
In the letter, Coakley spoke about the Church’s teaching on sex and gender, which is that God created humans male and female in his image, as composites of body and soul.
In a section of the letter addressed directly to those experiencing gender dysphoria, Coakley said it is vital not to dismiss the pain experienced by people who feel they are the wrong gender and affirmed that “each person who identifies as transgendered is loved by God and is a person Jesus Christ died to redeem … As a Church, we want to walk alongside you as you struggle with gender dysphoria.”
“We must avoid the extremes: to ignore the pain of the person and dogmatically assert that biological sex is the end of the conversation or to jettison the truth of the body in the false hope of relieving pain,” Coakley wrote in his letter.
“A Catholic response must both affirm God-given sex and recognize the struggle of the person in front of us. It requires listening with empathy as well as extending the invitation to receive God’s gift of the sexed body.”
Addressing parents who are struggling to respond to a child experiencing gender dysphoria, Coakley advised them to be open and listen to their child’s struggles but also to seek counseling and not to adopt pronouns different from the child’s biological sex.