Catholic women’s college reverses decision to allow transgender applicants: ‘We lost people’s trust’
A Catholic women’s college in Indiana has reversed its decision to allow transgender applicants following a month of backlash — admitting it “lost people’s trust and unintentionally created division” even as the university president defended the inclusion policy.
Notre Dame-based St. Mary’s College announced in November that it “will consider undergraduate applicants whose sex assigned at birth is female or who consistently live and identify as women” in 2024.
But on Thursday morning, president Katie Conboy sent an email to faculty confirming that the board of trustees decided to go back to its original policy of only accepting biological women.
“This has weighed heavily on our minds and in our hearts,” Conboy wrote in the email, originally obtained by the Daily Signal.
“There have been many voices responding to us from many places and perspectives. We have listened closely and we have heard each of you,” she continued.
“Some worried 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.
“Moreover, we clearly underestimated our community’s genuine desire to be engaged in the process of shaping a policy of such significance.
“As this last month unfolded, we lost people’s trust and unintentionally created division where we had hoped for this, we are deeply sorry.
“Taking all these factors into consideration, the Board has decided that we will return to our previous admission policy.”
But Conboy went on to defend the transgender admission policy, writing: “When the board approved this update, we viewed it as a reflection of our college’s commitment to live our Catholic values as a loving and just community. We believed it affirmed our identity as an inclusive, Catholic women’s college.”
“Although this has been a challenging time for our community, we believe that the college should continually grapple with the complexity of living our Catholic values in a changing world. But we also believe the College needs to do so as a community,” she continued.
“The Board and Administration are firmly committed to ensuring a welcome and safe environment for all.
“To this end, beginning in January, we will introduce a series of listening sessions — both on campus and online for our extended family — to explore what it means to embrace our values as a Catholic, women’s college.
“We will continue to work toward understanding how a college like ours can become a true home, a place of open doors and open arms, where everyone with all their differences intact, belongs.”
The reversal in policy reportedly came after Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend met with Conboy and Sister M. Veronique, president of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, to discuss the transgender admission policy, according to the student-run newspaper the Observer.
He had earlier released a statement saying college officials did not consult with him before making the policy change, and said they fundamentally departed from Catholic teachings on the nature of women.
“To call itself a ‘women’s college’ and to admit male students who ‘consistently live and identify as women’ suggests that the college affirms an ideology of gender that separates sex from gender and claims that sexual identity is based on the subjective experience of the individual,” Rhoades argued in his statement.
Students at the college also said they were not included in the conversation on accepting transgender applicants, and several alumnae even halted their donations to their alma mater in response.
After Conboy announced the school would be reversing its decision, many spoke out with relief.
“I’m so proud of the women of St. Mary’s who were willing to stand up against this anti-women, anti-Catholic policy,” Claire Bettag, a junior at the school, told the Daily Signal.
“God’s truth will always win.”
Claire Ath, who graduated in 2018, also explained: “When this admissions decision became public, hundreds of alumni banded together to stand for the Church and her teachings.
“While I would hope the reversal is because administrators realized we must teach the truth with love, my guess is the reversal is because alumni banded together, pulled their donations, notified their diocese and media and said we will not let our lady’s college be corrupted by secular gender ideology.”
News of the reversal was also celebrated by Catholic leaders.
“This is a very smart reversal and welcome affirmation of the need to protect the purpose and integrity of a Catholic college for women,” said Brian Burch, president of Catholic Vote.
“There is nothing unjust or discriminatory about protecting women from men who seek to redefine biological reality,” he said.
“To be Catholic is to acknowledge the truth about ourselves, including the unique and complementary roles of men and women. Those that seek to blur these trust must be resisted.
“St. Mary’s College is to be commended for their return to sanity,” Burch said.
But not everyone agreed, with Faithful America — a Christian organization pushing for social justice — expressing shock at the reversal of the transgender policy, which it supported.
“News of St. Mary’s hurtful reversal broke just as Faithful America had been preparing to send the College thousands of predominantly Catholic signatures thanking them for their now-overturned historic and Christ-like inclusivity,” WSBT reports.
“The change is heartbreaking,” it said.
