ROME — Pope Francis warned Friday against the evils of “gender ideology” and its tendency to erase real differences between men and women.
“The most dangerous thing today is a gender ideology that cancels out differences,” the Pope said. said He made the sudden remarks before delivering his opening address to the participants of an international conference entitled “Images of the Masculine and Feminine of God” held in the Vatican’s Synod Hall.
“I called for a study to be done about this ugly modern ideology that erases differences and makes us all the same,” he said, adding that erasing sexual differences “is erasing humanity.”
That’s why this meeting is so important, he insisted.
Francis has repeatedly condemned what he sees as “evil” transgender ideology, which advocates a disconnect between biological sex and gender identity.
The Pope told a group of Polish bishops in 2016:
Today, schools teach children – children. — that everyone can choose their gender. And why is this taught? Because their textbooks are chosen by people and organizations who pay for them. This is ideological colonization driven by a highly influential state. This is terrible.
In response to the Pope’s words, Mr. Francisco DeBernardo of the Executive Office said, director Officials at New Ways Ministries, a “Catholic” LGBT advocacy group, said the Pope was ignorant about LGBT issues.
“Nobody chooses their gender identity. They discover it. The process by which transgender people discover themselves is [sic] “It’s similar to how lesbian, gay and bisexual people discover their sexual orientation,” DeBernardo said.
in him letter About marriage and family Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”) Pope Francis emphasized the unique value of motherhood and fatherhood, stressing that neither is essential nor can they be replaced by a unisex “parent.”
As a way to help young people overcome narcissism, sex education should teach “respect and appreciation” for sexual differences, and that this respect includes accepting oneself and recognizing the body’s natural body rather than playing with fiction. This includes learning to accept, he said. A sexual “identity” that denies reality.
In the same letter, Francis accused gender theory of denying “the difference and reciprocity of the natures of men and women” and harboring dreams of “a society without gender differences.”
“Recognizing one’s body as male or female is necessary for recognizing oneself in encounters with others who are different from oneself,” he said.
Efforts to cancel out gender differences based on anatomy are a symptom of a sick society that “no longer knows how to deal with it,” he wrote.
In March 2023, Francis said that the “gender ideology” underlying transgenderism is currently “one of the most dangerous forms of ideological colonization.”
“Why is gender theory so dangerous?” the Pope asked during the conference. interview Argentinian daily newspaper La Nación. “It eviscerates difference, because the very richness of men and women, and of humanity, is the tension between differences.”
“Gender issues dilute differences and make the world the same, boring and samey. It goes against the human mission,” he said.
