Pope Francis blasts ‘gender ideology’ as ‘dangerous’: ‘It blurs differences’

The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has hit out at “gender ideology” by calling it one of the “most dangerous colonisations”. 

In an interview with Argentine daily newspaper LA NACION, published on Friday (10 March), the Pope blasted contemporary discussions around the topic of gender. 

“Why is it dangerous”, the pontiff told Vatican correspondent Elisabetta Piqué, “Because it blurs differences and the value of men and women.”

Pope Francis went onto say that so-called “gender ideology” “goes beyond the sexual” and “the question of gender is diluting the differences and making the world the same, all dull, all alike”. 

“That is contrary to the human vocation,” he added. 

Further to this, he said: “[‘Gender ideology’] eliminates differences, and that erases humanity, the richness of humanity, both personal, cultural, and social, the diversities and the tensions between differences.”

During the interview, Piqué told Pope Francis that she had recently filled in a form where you can tick either male, female or non-binary. 

The Pope said that reminded him of Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson’s 1907 dystopian novel, The Lord of the World.

“It raises a future in which the differences are disappearing and everything is the same, everything is uniform, a single boss of the whole world,” he told the reporter. 

Being LGBTQ+ still ‘a sin’, Pope has said

The Pope has spoken about LGBTQ+ issues numerous times during his papacy. 

He has said on multiple occasions that being gay is not a crime, nor should people be punished for it, while parents should accept their gay children. 

However, the Argentine Pope has also doubled down on homosexuality being a sin in the eyes of God, and being something the Catholic Church cannot support or bless. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church still states that same-sex relationships are “acts of great depravity” and adds: “Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

In August 2022, the Pope met with four trans people who found shelter in the Blessed Immaculate Virgin community in the Torvaianica neighbourhood of Rome during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Vatican newspaper reported that Sister Genevieve Jeanningros and local priest Andrea Conocchia said that the meetings with the Pope had given the groups hope.

“No one should encounter injustice or be thrown away, everyone has dignity of being a child of God,” said Jeanningros.