Pope Francis and LGBT and Gender Ideology
What has Pope Francis Actually Taught?
by CAPP-USA
The Pope as Pastor and the “T” in LGBT
People often put words in Pope Francis’ mouth regarding LGBT issues but what does the Holy Father actually say?
First, Pope Francis is a pastor. “I always distinguish between what pastoral care is for people who have a different sexual orientation and what gender ideology is. They are two different things.” (Pope Francis)
With this pastoral approach he teaches that “‘The Church must accompany with attention and care the weakest of her children, who show signs of a wounded and troubled love, by restoring in them hope and confidence'”. (Pope Francis, 291)
What has Pope Francis, in his own words, said about gender ideology?
Medical and pastoral support needs to help people “to accept their own bodies and to avoid the pretension ‘to cancel out sexual difference because one no longer knows how to deal with it.'” (Pope Francis, 285)
“[Gender ideology] dillutes differences, and the richness of men and women” (Pope Francis)
Gender Ideology
The Holy Father is clear: “Gender ideology, at this time, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonization’s. It goes beyond the sexual.” (Pope Francis)
“[T]oday the ugliest danger is gender ideology, which cancels out differences”. (Pope Francis)
Gender identity theory “denies the difference and reciprocity in [the] nature of a man and a woman and envisages a society with-out sexual differences” with the consequence that “human identity becomes the choice of the individual, one which can also change over time”. (Pope Francis, 56)
“[E]rasing difference is erasing humanity. Man and woman…are in a fruitful ‘tension’”. (Pope Francis)
Gender Ideology is “Dangerous”
“Why is it dangerous? Because it dilutes differences, and the richness of men and women and all humanity is the tension of differences.” (Pope Francis)
Pope Francis warns us that “Once the human being declares independence from reality and behaves with absolute dominion, the very foundations of our life begin to crumble“. (Laudato Si, 117)
Humanity grows “through the tension of differences. The question of gender is diluting the differences and creating an equal world, all blunt, all the same. And that goes against the human vocation.” (Pope Francis)
This is not novel. The Church has held this eternal truth since it was revealed in Genesis; “male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27)
The Beauty of Man and Woman
“‘Being man’ or ‘being woman’ is a reality which is good and willed by God.” (CCC, 369)
“I talk about it [gender ideology]…because there are somewhat naive people who believe that it is the path of progress and do not distinguish what is respect for sexual diversity or various sexual options from what is already an anthropology of gender”. This “is extremely dangerous because it annuls differences, and it annuls humanity, the richness of humanity”. (Pope Francis)
“Anyone who is Christian has a duty to bear witness to the Gospel“. (Pope Francis)
Read more:
Dr. Amy E. Hamilton: What the LGBTQ+ Community Needs from the Church
