Pope condemns the ‘ugly ideology’ of gender theory – the idea you can adopt the gender you want – saying it is ‘cancelling out humanity’

Pope Francis warned on Friday about the dangers of so-called gender theory, saying he had commissioned studies into what he condemned as an “ugly ideology” that threatens humanity.

Addressing participants at a two-day conference at the Vatican on the evolving roles of men and women according to Christian teachings, Francis said what he called “gender ideology” was a threat because it sought to erase the difference between the sexes. .

He said: ‘It is very important that there is this meeting, this meeting between men and women, because today the worst danger is gender ideology.

‘I asked for studies on this ugly ideology of our time, which erases differences and makes everything equal. Erasing differences is erasing humanity.

“To cancel differences means to cancel humanity.”

Gender theory, often called gender ideology, suggests that gender is more complex and fluid than the binary categories of man and woman, and depends on more than just visible sexual characteristics.

At the conference, which dealt with marriage and faith, the leader of the Catholic Church warned of a “dystopian” future.

The 87-year-old pontiff said he was still suffering from a fresh cold and had asked an aide to read his speech, but first he wanted to “underline” his feelings on gender ideology.

He said he remembered reading a “prophetic” book called “Lord of the World,” a dystopian novel published in 1907 by a Catholic priest about a world where religion has no place, which warned of the risk of overriding differences between people.

“Read it if you have time, because it talks about these problems of today,” the Pope told his visitors.

The Argentine pontiff has repeatedly criticized gender theory, also called gender ideology, which broadly is the idea that it is not necessary to adhere to the gender you were born with and that gender is a product of social, rather than purely biological, norms. . .

In 2019, the Vatican published an educational document intended to help Catholic school teachers counter ideas that “deny the natural difference between a man and a woman.”

This comes just a few months after the Vatican announced that transgender people, even if they have undergone hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery, can be baptized.

It said: “If there are no situations in which there is a risk of generating public scandal or confusion among the faithful.”

The Vatican also said that children of gay couples should be baptized even if they are born to a surrogate mother, as long as there is a well-founded hope that they will be raised in the Catholic faith.