'God is Trans' altar-side exhibit in church removed after Catholic archdiocese announces investigation

A leftist exhibit suggesting that God suffers from gender dysphoria has been cleared out of a Catholic church in Manhattan shortly after the Archdiocese of New York announced an investigation was under way.

The display, which surfaced on Monday, advanced notions contrary to Catholic teaching and upset various parishioners who had known the Church of St. Paul the Apostle was liberal, but hadn't figured it for a breeding ground of pseudo-heresies.

What's the background?

TheBlaze previously reported that the liberal-leaning parish featured a display entitled "God is Trans: A Queer Spiritual Journey" next to the altar.

The display consisted of several paintings by Adah Unachukwu that supposedly mapped "the queer spiritual journey by three significant points: Sacrifice, Identity, and Communion."

"The painting Sacrifice and its complementary act in the film speak to the need to shed an old life and personhood in order to be able to focus on your spiritual need," the artist's description explained.

"There is no devil; just past selves," it continued.

The second painting was reportedly described as "Identity," which Unachukwu defined as "the most impactful part of the exhibition."

"What does holiness look like? What does your god look like? Are these two portrayals that can be merged?" the artist asked.

One parishioner told the New York Post, "The church should not be promoting this."

"I understand there are transgender people. I pray for all people, but enough is enough," the parishioner stated. "It seems like they are trying to force the agenda on others."

Some Catholics expressed outrage online, with one recommending that the altar "be reconsecrated pronto."

Chasing trans activism out of the temple

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York told Newsweek that it had been unaware of the display until it was alerted by the media.

"If media reports are accurate, then we would have concerns. We are investigating and looking to speak with the pastor of the parish to get more information," said the spokesman, adding "We had no knowledge of it beforehand."

Not long after the investigation was announced, a spokesman for the diocese told the Daily Caller News Foundation, "It is my understanding that the parish has removed the exhibit."

Fox News Digital confirmed the display had been taken down.

It is presently unclear whether the exhibit was linked to the parish's "Out at Saint Paul" LGBT ministry, which allegedly seeks to build "a positive community spirit and provide a safe and nurturing environment for GLBT parishioners."

The Catholic News Agency reported that the so-called ministry captioned one photo online, "The love of God affirms trans kids, protects trans kids, listens to trans kids, fights for trans kids, delights in trans kids."

In a March 3, 2022, Facebook post, the Out at Saint Paul group celebrated International Transgender Day of Visibility, indicating it intended to "host events that will feature panel discussions on trans-affirming theology and health care very soon."

What does the Catholic Church say?

Despite the Church of St. Paul the Apostle's efforts to appease LGBT activists, Pope Francis and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have both made explicit the Catholic Church's opposition to transgenderism.

The pope said in an interview on March 10, "Gender ideology, today, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations," reported the Catholic News Agency. "Why is it dangerous? Because it blurs differences and the value of men and women."

The Vatican issued a 31-page guide in 2019 entitled, "Male and Female He Created Them," which underscored that notions of movable sexual identities are "often founded on nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants."

The guidance noted that the effort by LGBT activists to deny the duality of man and woman "not only erases the vision of human being as the fruit of an act of creation but creates the idea of the human person as a sort of abstraction who 'chooses for himself what his nature is to be.'"

Additionally, it suggested that social constructivism is an attack on the family and human dignity.

The USCCB has repeatedly condemned the transgender agenda, issuing a "Doctrinal note on the moral limits to technological manipulation of the human body" on March 20, noting that "throughout her history, the Church has opposed dualistic conceptions of the human person that do not regard the body as an intrinsic part of the human person, as if the soul were essentially complete in itself and the body were merely an instrument used by the soul."

"The soul does not come into existence on its own and somehow happen to be in this body, as if it could just as well be in a different body," said the document. "A soul can never be in another body, much less be in the wrong body."

The document further stressed that just as "bodiliness is a fundamental aspect of human existence, so is either 'being a man' or 'being a woman' a fundamental aspect of existence as a human being, expressing a person’s unitive and procreative finality."

For these reasons and various others rooted in Scripture and church teaching, the bishops called on Catholic hospitals and health practitioners to have nothing to do with trans-related genital mutilations and hormone treatments.

The National Catholic Bioethics Center stated in 2017, "So-called sex reassignment surgeries of any kind, designed to give the body an appearance with more of the culturally expected qualities of the opposite sex, also cannot modify the true sexual identity of the person, who was created male or female."

The NCBC ethicists added, "It is clear that those with gender dysphoria suffer greatly and must be treated with great compassion and sympathy. However, the attempt must be made to dissuade them from actions that ultimately will not contribute to their individual flourishing and may cause irreversible harm."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!