Pope Francis recently debunked modern theories that accept people’s gender identities to coexist along a wide spectrum by comparing them to nuclear weapons and saying they defy the natural order of creation. Talking about gender theory in an interview during the release of a new book that was released in Italy mid February, Francis compared the modern day complexity with nuclear weapons and genetic manipulation.
When asked how important it is for Christians to safeguard the notion of creation and sustainable growth, Francis said all people must be dutiful enough to respect and care for the environment before explaining that every historical period has seen the emergence of Herods that destroy, strategize death plots and disfigure the definition of man and woman, thus annihilating creation.
“Let's think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings,” he continued. “Let's think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation. … With this attitude, man commits a new sin, that against God the Creator. The true custody of creation does not have anything to do with the ideologies that consider man like an accident, like a problem to eliminate. … God has placed man and woman as the summit of creation and has entrusted them with the earth. The design of the Creator is written in nature.”
The Pope made these comments during the launch of a book title “Pope Francis: This Economy Kills,” which recounts and explains the dialogues, documents and interventions of the pontiff in issues related to poverty, social justice, immigration and saving creation. Written in Italian by veteran journalists Giacomo Galeazzi and Andrea Tomielli, the book includes an interview with the Pope as part of its conclusion. While some parts of that interview have been published online, most of it is still exclusively available in the book.
Gender theory is an inclusive term that considers how people identify themselves sexually and how they may be stereotyped into playing out certain roles that society expects them to.
Francis’ recent comments on gender theory seems to follow similar comments that he made at a press conference on the papal aircraft in January this year, where he condemned the notion of ideological colonization of developing countries by those that are far developed. Recalling the story of one public education minister who had been offered money to set up new schools for the poor, Francis said, in order to receive those funds, the minister was compelled to make his students read a book about gender theory.
“This is ideological colonization,” the Pope had said. “It colonizes the people with an idea that changes, or wants to change, a mentality or a structure.… It is not new.… The same was done by the dictators of the last century. They came with their own doctrine -- think of the Balilla [youth groups of Fascist Italy], think of the Hitler Youth.”
Francis’ idea of creation being in tandem with God’s plan seems to draw reference from the Catholic theological concept of natural law, which suggests that nature itself carries a moral message that humans can decipher with the help of their reason.
The part of the recent interview that carries the Pope’s comments on gender theory also sees him touching on what he looks upon as the need for all people, not only Christians, to protect creation.
“Creation is a gift that God has given to man to keep custody over it, to cultivate it, to use if for sustenance and to give it to future generations,” the Pope says. “The vocation to guard is human before Christian, it regards all: It is the custody of creation -- its beauty -- it is to have respect for all the creatures of God and for the environment in which we live. If we fail in this responsibility, if we do not take care of our brothers and of all creation, destruction advances.”
Photo Credits: Truthdig
