Catholic women’s college St Mary’s U-turns on allowing transgender applicants after admitting ‘we lost people’s trust and unintentionally created division’

A Catholic women's college in Indiana has reversed its decision to allow biological males to attend the institution if they have identified as female in the past.

St Mary's College, Notre Dame, had announced in November that men who identify as women would be able to enroll at the college in the fall of 2024.

On Thursday morning, President Katie Conboy sent an email to the college's faculty expressing outrage over their decision.

In the email, first reported by The daily signalConboy confirmed that the board had decided to return to the previous admissions policy.

The school's change had angered people including Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop Kevin Rhoades, who released a statement condemning the move.

After originally announcing the policy change last month, president Katie Conboy, seen here, said they would return to their original applicant policy

Conboy said in the email, “This has weighed heavily on our minds and hearts.

“Many voices have responded to us from many places and perspectives. We have listened carefully and we have heard each and every one of you.

“Some feared that this was much more than a policy decision: they felt it was a dilution of our mission or even a threat to our Catholic identity.

“Furthermore, we have clearly underestimated our community's genuine desire to be involved in the process of shaping a policy of such significance.

“As this past month unfolded, we lost people's trust and inadvertently created division where we had hoped for unity. We are very sorry about this.

'Taking all these factors into account, the board has decided that we will return to our previous admission policy.

“While this has been a challenging time for our community, we believe the College must continually grapple with the complexities of living our Catholic values ​​in a changing world.”

Bishop Rhoades said in his statement that the college had fundamentally deviated from Catholic teaching on the nature of women.

He added: “By calling itself a 'women's college' and admitting male students who 'consistently live and identify as women' suggests that the college affirms a gender ideology that separates sex from gender and claims that sexual identity is based on the subjective. experience of the individual.'

Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, pictured here, strongly condemned the college's move

Since Conboy announced the policy reversal, students and alumni have welcomed the decision.

Claire Bettag, a junior at St Mary's, told The Daily Signal: 'I am so proud of the women at Saint Mary's who were willing to stand up against these anti-women, anti-Catholic policies. God's truth will always win.'

Clare Ath, who graduated from the school in 2018, added: “When this admissions decision became public, hundreds of alumni came together to stand up for the Church and its teachings.

“While I hope the turnaround comes because administrators realized that we must teach the truth with love, I suspect the turnaround comes because alumni rallied together, collected their donations, notified their diocese and the media, and said we Our Lady College will not allow it to exist. corrupted by secular gender ideology.”

Patrick Reilly, president and founder of The Cardinal Newman Society, said: “This is such welcome news at this time as we celebrate Christ, Wisdom becoming a real man, and Mary, a real woman and a real Mother of the Son of God.

“This is the truth that is the foundation of Catholic education and not 'the complexity of living our Catholic values ​​in a changing world.'

The school was founded in 1844 by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Tuition costs approximately $50,000 per year.