The gifts of men and women are “fruitful” together, and to erase the difference between men and women “is to erase humanity”, Pope Francis said. Source: OSV News.
“Today, the worst danger is gender ideology, which erases differences,” he said, underlining that he has asked for studies to be done “about this ugly ideology of our time, which erases differences and makes everything equal”.
“To erase difference is to erase humanity. Man and woman, on the other hand, stand in fruitful ‘tension’,” with each other, he said.
The Pope made his remarks as he opened an international congress in the Vatican Synod Hall titled, “Man-Woman: Image of God. For an Anthropology of Vocations.”
The March 1-2 congress was sponsored by the Centre for Research and Anthropology of Vocations, which was founded in 2020 by retired Dicastery for Bishops prefect Cardinal Marc Ouellet to promote and support research in the social sciences on vocations in society.
The Pope greeted the attendees and told them that he would have an aide, Msgr Filippo Ciampanelli, an official of the Vatican Secretariat of State, read his prepared text because “I still have a cold and I get worn out from reading” out loud after a while.
However, he continued speaking off-the-cuff, saying, “I would like to emphasise one thing: It is very important that we have this meeting, this meeting between men and women, because today the worst danger is gender ideology, which erases differences.”
As he often has done in the past, the Pope referenced the dystopian science fiction novel Lord of the World, written in 1907 by Msgr Robert H Benson, a former Anglican vicar, encouraging his audience to read it. He reiterated that he considers the novel to be “prophetic because it shows this trend of erasing all differences”.
‘Ugly’ gender ideology is the worst danger, Pope says (By Carol Glatz, OSV News)
