Br. Christian Matson
In what is perhaps an historical first, a diocesan hermit has come out as transgender, and has done so with the support of his local bishop. The hermit’s hope is to expand what gender-diverse Catholics understand to be possible for them in the church.
On Pentecost Sunday,Brother Christian Matson publicly announced he was trans. His bishop is Bishop John Stowe, OFM, Conv., of Lexington Kentucky, who as been a vocal supporter of LGBTQ+ people. According to Religion News Service (RNS):
“Matson, who is also a Benedictine oblate, believes he is the first openly transgender person in his position in the Catholic Church. It is a difficult claim to confirm — even Stowe told RNS he did not know for sure if Matson is the first — but Matson’s status is at least highly unusual, and comes at time when church officials are grappling with how to address transgender Catholics.
“According to Matson, 39, his ‘disclosing,’ as he describes it, is a moment years in the making. He offered his story as indicative of the often difficult path for trans Catholics, including those seeking life as a religious — a category that includes brothers and nuns.
“‘I am currently based in the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky,’ he wrote in an email to friends and supporters on Sunday. ‘I live in a hermitage at the top of a wooded hill, which I share with my German Shepherd rescue, Odie, and with the Blessed Sacrament, which was installed in my oratory shortly before Christmas.'”
Matson medically transitioned while in college, before he was received into the Catholic Church in 2010 and began exploring possible vocational paths. After receiving his doctorate in theology, Matson explored religious life. The Jesuits rejected him, as did other communities, and often religious congregations would not even respond to inquiries. One leader said given Matson’s trans identity any conversation would be “a waste of time.”
The hermit ended up consulting a canon lawyer who explained that, perRNS, “only two aspects of Catholic life were categorically off the table: marriage and the priesthood” and that Matson should be “upfront about his status as a transgender man in any vocational conversations with church leaders.” But the canonist also suggested that taking vows as a hermit in a specific diocese could avoid certain issues because, in Matson’s words, “there’s no problem as long as there’s a bishop who will accept you, because there’s no distinction by sex and you’re not in a community — you’re by yourself.”
In 2020, Matson, who was engaged in ministry with artists at the time through the Catholic Artist Connection, a group he co-founded, wrote to Lexington’s Bishop Stowe about being a vowed hermit. RNS reported:
“Stowe wrote back immediately, expressing his openness.
“‘It was an enormous relief,’ Matson said. ‘I was in tears. I felt my hope revive.’
“Stowe confirmed Matson’s account, saying the then-aspiring brother was recommended to him by a number of people.
“‘My willingness to be open to him is because it’s a sincere person seeking a way to serve the church,’ Stowe said of Matson. ‘Hermits are a rarely used form of religious life … but they can be either male or female. Because there’s no pursuit of priesthood or engagement in sacramental ministry, and because the hermit is a relatively quiet and secluded type of vocation, I didn’t see any harm in letting him live this vocation.’ . . .
“Finally, in August 2022, Matson took his first vows as a diocesan hermit — a yearlong commitment — under Stowe’s direction. For the next year, Matson ‘lived a life of basically spending half the day in prayer and half the day doing some form of work’ that included producing and writing at a local theater.”
This year, Matson decided to come out as trans, with Bishop Stowe’s support, because of the harsh anti-trans climate in both the Catholic Church and U.S. society. Pentecost was the day he was first baptized, and it is a celebration of preaching God’s love to all people. One particular experience cemented the decision to discose his gender identity. According to RNS,the hermit encountered a trans youth whose Catholic parents had rejected them, and the two prayed together. After this, Matson explained:
“‘I can’t stand by and let this false and, at times, culpably ignorant understanding of what it means to be transgender continue to hurt people,’ he said. ‘If I don’t say anything and allow the church to continue to make decisions based on incorrect information, then I’m not serving the church.’ . . .
“‘I’m Catholic,’ he said. ‘I became Catholic after I transitioned because of the Catholic understanding — the sacramental understanding — of the body, of creation, of the desirability of the visible unity of the church, and primarily because of the Eucharist.’
“At the very least, Matson said, he hopes going public will spark dialogue about his fellow transgender Catholics, a discussion he believes can enhance unity among the body of believers.
“‘You’ve got to deal with us, because God has called us into this church,’ he said. ‘It’s not your church to kick us out of — this is God’s church, and God has called us and engrafted us into it.'”
—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, May 20, 2024
