When ‘Honorata’ converted to the Catholic faith, she had been living as a transgender man for nearly a decade. Yet even after stopping her masculinizing medical treatments post-conversion, she retained the appearance of being male—and was left with no way to explain her biological sex to her fellow Christians without making herself the target of incorrect judgments.
The story of Honorata, who goes by a pseudonym to protect her identity, is one of many being shared through the Gender Accompaniment Project (GAP), a new podcast designed to shed a light of truth and love on the complex issues surrounding gender in today’s culture.
Developed by McGrath Institute for Church Life (MICL) professor Abigail Favale, Ph.D., the ten-part documentary-style series highlights the stories of faithful Christians who experience a sense of disconnection with their biological sex. According to a MICL news release, the podcast attempts to approach the issue of “gender discordance” from a Catholic perspective, integrating psychology and theology in a pastoral approach that resists the “fear-driven polarization and rhetoric” surrounding gender issues today.
Each episode seeks to guide listeners toward a deeper understanding of the Catholic vision for gender and sexuality through personal testimonies, accompanied by commentary from experts in theology, psychology, and medicine.
A bestselling author, Notre Dame professor, and mother of four, Favale has an extensive background writing and teaching about gender, feminism, and sexual difference through the lens of her Catholic faith and her work in theology and literature. She told the Rover that the idea of creating a podcast came from the rich conversations she experienced after organizing a symposium of Catholic educators in 2023.
Favale described how the mode of a podcast facilitates authentic storytelling, saying, “One of the weaknesses of our culture in talking about gender is that it offers a very simplistic framework for what are often very complex ways that people are wrestling with something. … And so I thought [of] using this kind of modality, rather than just a book or an open-ended interview, [of] something like a series that presents both theological and philosophical formation but also allows the listener to really encounter someone who’s living this out in a way that is really trying to be faithful, that is really trying to walk toward Christ, especially in this part of their life.”
Three of ten episodes have been released so far, titled “Us & Them,” “Gender & Generativity,” and “Body & Story.” These episodes include conversations with a religious sister, philosophers and theologians, and Christians who share their stories of discipleship amid their struggles with gender.
A senior living in Pasquerilla East Hall praised the project to the Rover, saying, “As Christians, we are called by Jesus to love one another. I think Favale’s work opens a door to dialogue on gender that fosters the communion we are called to.”
Favale emphasized that care and compassion for the individual in no way precludes speaking the truth with clarity; in fact, both are necessary in a pastoral approach to complex issues. She told the Rover, “A lot of the narratives about gender in our culture either really focus on truth, or they really focus on love. And so what I’m really trying to do in this podcast is both, is to really weave those together, because in the Christian understanding of reality, those are one. There really is no separation between truth and love.”
Hearing and sharing stories like Honorata’s demonstrates that reality rarely fits into “the simplistic narratives we tell” to promote our own ideologies, according to Favale. She described her experience interviewing Honorata, saying, “Her story has really stuck with me, just because I think it’s so important for us to hear so that we’re ready to receive people in whatever way they come into the Church, and also to realize that detransition is really also very complicated. And it’s not easy, and not everything can be undone. And so I think sometimes we expect things to be kind of neat and tidy in a way that is not realistic.”
She continued, “[Honorata] just has such a beautiful heart, and her story … [is] a really important one for people to hear who are in the Church, just to be able to receive people in their complexity.”
A sophomore living in Lewis Hall echoed Favale’s sentiments, telling the Rover, “If we want to convince people and have a shared understanding of values, then relationships come first. And I think a lot of people have a tendency to want to see ideologies and positions on the political spectrum first, without seeing a person.”
She continued, “It’s easier to dialogue with a person than dialoguing with a position on the political spectrum. So I think that it’s important to foster relationships … and then to bear witness by the way that you’re acting.”
Favale emphasized that sharing the stories of those who struggle with their biological sex does not only help others who are experiencing gender discordance, but also provides valuable lessons about discipleship for every Christian.
She concluded, “I really wanted to tell stories about faithful Christians who are wrestling with this because I think there’s also an assumption sometimes from people in the Church that people who struggle with questions around gender are kind of out there in the culture and not in the Church, when in fact, they are in the Church. And we have, I think, something to learn from that kind of faithful wrestling that we see in these stories.”
The first three episodes of GAP can be accessed on major podcast platforms, including Spotify and YouTube, while the remaining seven episodes will be released biweekly until the end of June.
Abby Strelow is a sophomore studying the Program of Liberal Studies, theology, and Italian. After two years of suffering from the eternal winters and mountainless landscape of Indiana, she is escaping the Midwest to spend the next semester in Rome. You can send her (digital) postcards from South Bend at astrelow@nd.edu.