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009: Straight Thinking About Sexual Identity — Katrina Zeno

April 20, 2020 By Thomas Schmierer, Catholic Therapist, LMFT

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:54 — 38.4MB) | Embed

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Do you have a daughter who feels more like a boy than a girl and wants to have a sex change?  Or do you maybe have a son who came home from college last Thanksgiving and shared the news over the turkey dinner: “Mom, Dad, I’m gay”?  If you are a parent who is facing or has faced one of these difficult and very modern situations, you might be as, if not more, confused about “gender” as your child.  In this episode, guest Katrina Zeno explains how the road to our modern confusion about “gender” has taken hundreds of years to develop.  Katrina sees the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas and Pope St. JPII as offering much-needed clarifications on matters of sexual identity.

Katrina Zeno is the coordinator of the St. John Paul II Resource Center for Theology of the Body and Culture for the Diocese of Phoenix.  She is the author of three books including Discovering the Feminine Genius and The Body Reveals God. Katrina has been speaking nationally and internationally on St. John Paul II’s “theology of the body” for over 21 years.  Born and raised in San Diego, she received her B.A. in theology from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio and her Masters in Theological Studies from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Washington, DC.

In this episode Katrina addresses:

  • How the body and the spirit are supposed to be united
  • Why some theology of the body speakers might have what appears to be a risqué presentation style
  • How theology of the body in many ways is about trying to recompose the human nature in the fullness of the truth that we are an embodied spirit
  • How 700 years of philosophy led us to our current thinking on matters of sexual identity
  • How the nominalism of William of Ockham and its overemphasis of God’s will was the beginning of where philosophical thinking got off track
  • The importance of accepting that there are universals or natures in correctly understanding sexual identity
  • How René Descartes jettisoned the essence and purpose of things, leaving only the function, and how he erroneously over-emphasized the human will
  • How Sir Francis Bacon’s view that there is no permanent essence and no purpose devalued deductive reasoning such that it overemphasized the experimental method in understanding the how things work and how such a view is being used today to wrongfully discount proper views of sexuality and morality
  • The importance of knowing the difference between meaning and function and their proper applications as pertains to determining the morally righteous use of the human body
  • How Charles Darwin sought to show that the origin of the species did not include God and how Darwinism’s Godless arbitrariness fails to adequately explain the nature of human sexuality
  • How Friedrich Nietzsche had good intentions but the wrong solution regarding the problem of defining sexual nature
  • How Nietzsche erroneously our understanding of God to be a projection of human psychology, e.g. a shame-riddled person will see God as honorable
  • How Nietzsche’s claim that “God is dead and we have killed him” makes sense in the context of his erroneous understanding of God
  • How Nietzsche’s “will to power” is another example of an overemphasis on the will, albeit an atheistic viewpoint
  • How Nietzsche’s view that “We go beyond good and evil” is dangerous when used to define and understand the sexual nature of the human person
  • How the structure of reality has been discarded by Nietzsche
  • How the solution to all the confusion created by erroneous philosophies is the “recapturing of human nature made for union and communion through a total gift of self in love”
  • How the closest we can get to giving a total gift of self is in the marital act
  • How in receiving the Holy Eucharist when properly disposed, we become one flesh with God and experience the ultimate purpose of what our bodies were created for
  • What is her most basic book on the Theology of the Body?

Links mentioned by Katrina Zeno:

  • TOB Center
  • TOB Tuesdays Blog
  • Katrina’s Facebook Page
  • KatrinaZeno.com
  • Katrina’s YouTube Channel

Email link for ordering Discovering the Feminine Genius and The Body Reveals God books:

  • mailto:tobspeaker@gmail.com

Photo by Tim Mossholder from Pexels.


For more information on the show and other resources visit https://healingandpeace.com/blog/about/.

To subscribe to the blog/show eNewsletter, visit https://healingandpeace.com/blog/how-to-subscribe-to-the-healing-and-peace-show-with-thomas-schmierer-lmft/.

Filed Under: The Healing and Peace Show with Thomas Schmierer, LMFT: Your Catholic Guide Through the Trials of Life Tagged With: homosexuality, LGBTQIA-identified persons, marriage, podcast, same-sex attraction, SSA, St. John Paul II, Theology of the Body, transgenderism, vlog

Join Our Theology of the Body Interest Group

Live in CA near the Pacific Coast?  Love St. Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body too?

Join the Ocean Counties Theology of the Body Evangelization Resources (OC-TOBER) Yahoo! group to stay informed of Theology of the Body events in the area.

About Thomas Schmierer, Catholic Therapist, LMFT

Thomas Schmierer (pronounced "shmeer") is a licensed marriage and family therapist. He is a faithful Catholic who helps individuals, couples, and families in pain to experience deep personal and relational healing by using the top faith and evidence-based treatments so that they can live out their unique vocations to love with ever greater peace, holiness, and joy. He has been seeing clients since 2008. Healing and Peace is the name of Thomas's private practice and his blog. His office is in Oceanside, CA, but he also offers therapy services over the phone/Skype (online) for clients located in AZ, CA, KS, FL, NJ, & WY and Catholic life and relationship coaching services for clients worldwide. His CA license number is 80450. Thomas graduated summa cum laude from Holy Apostles College & Seminary with an M.A. in Moral Theology in 2009 and tries to understand what Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition have to tell us about how to go about our everyday living. He has a special interest in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Benedicta of the Cross, and St. Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and enjoys trying to break down complicated theological concepts to make them more accessible and useful for the average lay Catholic. He is also the creator of the Healing and Peace Blog: Your Catholic Guide Through the Trials of Life.

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