Pope Francis spoke out against gender theory in a recent interview, echoing his past comments expressing disapproval of transgender ideology.
"Gender ideology, today, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations," Francis said in the conversation.
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The pope made the comments in a March 10 interview with Argentinian newspaper La Nación — the conversation was translated into English by the Catholic News Agency.
"Why is it dangerous?" he continued. "Because it blurs differences and the value of men and women."
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"All humanity is the tension of differences. It is to grow through the tension of differences," the pope said. "The question of gender is diluting the differences and making the world the same, all dull, all alike, and that is contrary to the human vocation."
While often touted as a progressive religious leader, Pope Francis has remained consistently orthodox on doctrines regarding sexuality and celibacy.
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The pontiff attributed the increasing global push for gender subjectivity to well-intentioned people who "do not distinguish what is respect for sexual diversity or diverse sexual preferences from what is already an anthropology of gender, which is extremely dangerous because it eliminates differences, and that erases humanity, the richness of humanity, both personal, cultural, and social, the diversities and the tensions between differences."
Pope Francis said during a January 2023 interview that homosexual relations are "not a crime" and called laws that penalize homosexuality "unjust."
At the Vatican, the Pontiff said that God loves everyone as they are and called on Catholics to do more to welcome people from the LGBTQ community into the church. He also encouraged them to support laws allowing homosexual practices.
Amid his remarks, Francis said there needed to be a distinction between a legal crime and a religious sin with regard to homosexual practices: "It's not a crime. Yes, but it's a sin. Fine, but first, let's distinguish between a sin and a crime."
