GENDER THEORY: Key points from Pope Francis and the Vatican

POPE FRANCIS ON GENDER THEORY

Gender theory is part of world war to destroy marriage. A great enemy of marriage today: the theory of gender. Today there is a world war to destroy marriage. Today there are ideological colonizations which destroy, not with weapons, but with ideas. Therefore, there is a need to defend ourselves from ideological colonizations. (Address to Priests, Religious, Seminarians and Pastoral Workers during the Apostolic Journey to Georgia and Azerbaijan, October 1, 2016) 

Gender theory is a step backwards and creates a problem. I ask myself if the so-called gender theory is not an expression of frustration and resignation, which seeks to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to deal with it. Yes, we risk taking a step backwards. The removal of difference in fact creates a problem, not a solution. (General Audience on Man and Woman, April 15, 2015) 

Ideology of choosing one’s own gender is terrible ideological colonization. In Europe, America, Latin America, Africa, and in some countries of Asia, there are genuine forms of ideological colonization taking place. And one of these - I will call it clearly by its name – is [the ideology of] ‘gender’. Today children – children! – are taught in school that everyone can choose his or her sex. Why are they teaching this? Because the books are provided by the persons and institutions that give you money. These forms of ideological colonization are also supported by influential countries. And this is terrible! (Address to the Polish Bishops during the Apostolic Journey to Poland, July 27, 2016) 

Age of sin against God the Creator. In a conversation with Pope Benedict, he said to me: ‘Holiness, this is the age of sin against God the Creator’. He is very perceptive. God created man and woman; God created the world in a certain way… and we are doing the exact opposite. Pope Benedict’s observation should make us think. (Address to the Polish Bishops during the Apostolic Journey to Poland, July 27, 2016) 

We don’t have absolute power over our bodies. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of an “ecology of man.” “Man has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will.” Thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. (Laudato Si’ 155) 

Value our own body to meet someone different and joyfully accept specific gifts. Valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude to seek to cancel out sexual difference. (Laudato Si’ 155) 

Sex and gender cannot be separated. It needs to be emphasized that ‘biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated.’ It is one thing to be understanding of human weakness and the complexities of life, and another to accept ideologies that attempt to sunder what are inseparable aspects of reality. (Amoris Laetitia 56) 

It’s a sin for creatures to replace the Creator. Let us not fall into the sin of trying to replace the Creator. We are creatures, and not omnipotent. Creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and this means, in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created. (Amoris Laetitia 56) 

Help the young to appreciate their own body, to be self-aware and not be afraid of being different. The young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created, for ‘thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation… An appreciation of our body as male or female is also necessary for our own self-awareness in an encounter with others different from ourselves. Only by losing the fear of being different, can we be freed of self-centeredness and self-absorption. (Amoris Laetitia 285)

VATICAN'S MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM: Towards a path of dialogue on the question of gender theory in education

Context: there is an educational crisis on affectivity and sexuality due to the challenges of gender theory:

• denies the difference between a man and a woman and their complementarity
• sees sexual difference as a mere product of cultural influences 
• gender identity is a choice of the individual and can change
• leads to destabilization of family 
• Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia: gender ideology “leads to educational programs and laws that promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically separated from the biological difference between male and female.” 

Methodology: 

• Dialogue through listening, reasoning and proposing 
• Pope Francis: “while the ideologies of gender claim to respond ‘to what are at times understandable aspirations’, they also seek ‘to assert themselves as absolute and unquestionable, even dictating how children should be raised’, and thus preclude dialogue”. 
• We have to be open to research that deepens our understanding of the differences between men and women 

History of gender theory. Listening

• 1990s theory of a radical separation between gender and sex, with the former having priority over the latter. 
• Vision of a society without sexual differences
• Nature and culture are contraposed
• Concept of "queer" 
• sexuality as extremely fluid, flexible, and constantly moving
• liberation of the individual from sexual definition
• disappearance of rigid classifications

Points of agreement and criticisms. Reasoning

• Points of agreement
• need to educate children to respect every person in their particularity and difference, so that no one should suffer bullying, violence, insults or unjust discrimination based on their specific characteristics, such as special needs, race, religion, sexual tendencies, etc
• the values of feminity
• willingness of women to dedicate themselves in a special way to human relationships, especially for the benefit of the weakest
• St John Paul II - women exhibit a kind of affective, cultural and spiritual motherhood, which is of inestimable value 
• Point of criticism
• radical gender theory 
• speaks of process of denaturalisation, that is a move away from nature 
• sexual identity and family are based on a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants
• Rational arguments
• clarify the centrality of the body as an integrating element of personal identity and family relationships
• the data of biological and medical science shows that ‘sexual dimorphism’ (only two sexes) can be proved by science, as, for example, by the study of chromosomes. 
• importance of the dialogue between faith and reason. 

Proposing a Christian anthropology: an integral ecology of man

• Genesis: male and female He created them 
• Human nature
• to be understood in light of the unity of body and soul
• the “horizontal dimension” of “interpersonal communion” is integrated with the “vertical dimension” of communion with God. 
• Education
• Parents have the primary rights and duties with regard to the education of their children — rights and duties which cannot be delegated or usurped by others. 
• Children have the right to a mother and a father, and that it is within the family that children can learn to recognize the beauty of sexual differences. 
• Schools are called to assist families and to dialogue with parents, respecting also the family’s culture.
• Rebuild an “alliance” between family, schools, and society, which can produce educational programs on affectivity and sexuality that respect each person’s own stage of maturity regarding these areas and at the same time promote respect for the body of the other person

The path of dialogue: Transforming concerns and misunderstandings 

• the path of dialogue, which involves listening, reasoning and proposing, appears the most effective way towards a positive transformation of concerns and misunderstandings, as well as a resource that in itself can help develop a network of relationships that is both more open and more human
• Catholic schools have a legitimate aspiration to maintain their own vision of human sexuality
• a democratic state cannot reduce the range of education on offer to a single school of thought
• Importance for Catholic schools:
• to take into consideration the age-group of the students to be taught
• to treat each person with respect. 
• to accompany, discreetly and confidentially, reaching out to those who are experiencing complex and painful situations
• to be an environment of trust, calmness, and openness, particularly where there are cases that require time and careful discernment
• to provide a patient and understating ear, far removed from any unjust discrimination

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Accept your sexual identity. Sexual complementarity is for the good of marriage and the family. Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out. (CCC 2333)

Man and woman have equal personal dignity. By creating the human being man and woman, God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other. Each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. (CCC 2393)