Mason Catrambone, a 14-year-old New Jersey native, was denied access to Camden Catholic High School on the grounds that he is, biologically, a female. Mason, then Madelyn, applied to CCHS last February and was accepted, but since then has started identifying as male, leading the school to retract the student’s acceptance.
Although Mason has not yet undergone any surgical or hormone treatments to switch to the opposite gender, Camden Catholic asserted that it would not be able to meet the student’s needs, and furthermore, allowing Mason to attend would contradict the teachings of the Catholic Church.
A 1971 alum of CCHS, Mason’s father Frank Catrambone is, along with his wife, wholeheartedly supportive of Mason’s gender decision, and had been excited at the prospect of his son attending his old high school. Mason’s parents had hoped that CCHS would be willing to compromise in order for him to attend the school—Mason would be willing to use the nurse’s office restroom to use the bathroom and to change for gym class, so long as he was allowed to wear a boy’s uniform.
However, the hopes of such an arrangement fell through when the Diocese of Camden and Heather Crisci, the principal of CCHS, made the joint decision to deny Mason entrance to the school. In an official statement, diocesan spokesperson Michael Walsh said, “As a Catholic school, our principal mission is to form students in the faith and we must always be true to the teachings of that Faith, even — indeed especially — when those teachings are challenged by the secular world.”
Although he is disappointed in the school’s decision, Mason said that he is “not surprised,” since the Bible takes a stance against the transgender community in the belief that God creates everyone in His own perfect image.
There is currently an online petition that has almost 2,000 signatures in support of Mason. Despite all of the controversy and the backlash caused my CCHS’s decision, Mason says he will remain Catholic and continue his high school education online.