Addressing participants in the international Symposium "Man-Woman: Image of God.” Pope Francis describes so-called gender ideology as the "ugliest danger" of our time, because it cancels out all differences that make humanity.
Pope Francis on Friday again spoke out against gender theory describing it as an “ugly ideology of our time”, because it erases all distinctions between men and women. To ceancel this difference “is to erase humanity. Man and woman, instead, exist in a fruitful ‘tension’”, he said.
The Symposium
The remarks came as he opened his address to participants in the international Symposium "Man-Woman: Image of God. Towards an Anthropology of Vocations" held in the Vatican on March 1-2.
The Congress is organized by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect Emeritus of the Dicastery for Bishops, together with the Centre for Research and Anthropology of Vocations (CRAV) and is a follow-up to the previous 2022 Symposium dedicated to the theology of the priesthood.
Introducing his address the Pope said he still has a cold and asked his assistant Monsignor Filippo Ciampanelli to read it out for him, "so I don't get so fatigued.”
In the prepared text the Pope reflected on the theme of the Congress which is aimed first of all at highlighting the anthropological dimension of every vocation.
The human person is a vocation
Indeed, he remarked, “the life of the human being is a vocation” which has a relational character: “I exist and live in relation to who generated me, to the reality that transcends me, to others and to the world around me, in which I am called to embrace a specific and personal mission with joy and responsibility.”
“Each one of us discovers and expresses oneself as called, as a person who realizes oneself in listening and response, sharing our being and gifts with others for the common good.”
This fundamental anthropological truth is sometimes overlooked in today's cultural context, where human beings tend to be reduced to their mere material and primary needs. Yet, Pope Francis said , they are more than this: created by God in His own image, man and woman “carry within themselves a desire for eternity and happiness that God himself has planted in their hearts and that they are called to fulfil through a specific vocation.”
“Our being in the world is not a mere fruit of chance, but we are part of a design of love and are invited to go out of ourselves and realize it, for ourselves and for others,” the Pope said.
“We are called to happiness, to the fullness of life, to something great to which God has destined us.”
We all have a mission in Church and society
Recalling Cardinal Saint John Henry Newman’s “Meditations and Prayers” Pope Francis further remarked that not only we have all been entrusted with a mission, but ”each and every one of us is a mission.”
The Pope therefore welcomed the symposium and the studies conducted on this topic because, he said, “they spread awareness of the vocation to which every human being is called by God”, and are also useful to reflect on today’s challenges, on the ongoing anthropological crisis, and on the need to promote human and Christian vocations.
Promoting a more effective "circularity" of vocations
He also emphasized the importance of promoting “a more effective circularity” of the different types of vocations in the Church, including lay vocations, ordained ministry and consecrated life, so they “can contribute to generating hope in a world overwhelmed by death.”
“Generating this hope, placing oneself at the service of the Kingdom of God to build an open and fraternal world is a mission entrusted to every woman and man of our time,” he said.
The courage to seek God’s will
Closing his address, Pope Francis encouraged the participants in the Symposium not to shy away from risks in seeking God’s will in their work, reminding them a living faith is not an artifact in a museum:”The Holy Spirit asks us fidelity, but fidelity moves, and often leads us to take risks”, he said.
“Move forward with the courage to discern and risk seeking God's will.”
This is why people shouldn't to reflexively shit on all of protestantism. It is the only area of Christianity where trans and queer folks are accepted and has fought for their civil rights for decades.
trans and queer folks are only accepted in a minority of protestant churches. That minority is thankfully growing but there are active reactionary movements in protestantism to counteract that change. For example, I saw a protestant youtuber named "redeemed zoomer" or some cringe shit who is actively leading a movement to get cishets to abandon their "liberal" churches and find anti-LGBT "conservative" churches. This isn't terminally online shit either, he is going around doing real reactionary activism, nailing anti-LGBT "theses" to the doors of churches, debating pro-LGBT pastors, signing petitions, etc. So it shouldn't be overstated how friendly protestantism is as a whole to LGBT people. Especially since the change was very recent, and has not yet been cemented and codified into the religion itself. Protestant pastors still quote homophobic verses from leviticus when they feel like it.
And your mileage is definitely going to vary depending on the country.
Absolutely, I completely agree. There are still very few safe spaces for queer and trans comrades who are Christians. Evangelicals are literal anti-Christs. Just wanted to elevate the voices of our comrades who are almost entirely protestant.
I understand completely where you are coming from. There is still so much work to do! And it is a shame that the burden is on LGBTQIA+ and their comrades, because the cishets sure as shit aren't "carrying the cross" themselves, to borrow a metaphor.
Absolutely. Imperial core Christians especially haven't even dealt with the legacy of slavery and genocide in their own past nevermind the issues of gender or sexuality. As James cone would say, they have to grapple with the lynching tree before they can even consider the crucifixion tree.
The black church has been historically disappointing on sexuality and gender. Those that fought tooth and nail for civil rights turn utter slurs in the next breath. James Cone, Cornel West, and Jeremiah Wright pushed hard towards trans and queer inclusion but there's still a monumental way to go. West and Cone even said the black church misses it's opportunity to participate again in the political revolts because of it's refusal to repent and declare their allyship. Hopefully things continue to change for the better.
Protestants suck for an entirely different reason than a lack of queer rights (though they carry that form of bigotry over from Catholicism too). Protestants suck because they have dumb doo doo ass ideology from Calvinism and shit which made their entire outlook on life melt in other contexts.
Yeah, which makes sense that the supportive ally prots are non-calvinists in my experience at least
Yeah, makes sense
lmfao come on
???
Some specific catholic churches are queer friendly, and a majority of protestant churches are emphatically not. I just think taking this instance of rank religious transphobia as an opportunity to advocate for your preferred sect is gauche, at the very least.
ah but you see not all christians
In the Catholic church, you can't be a priest if you are queer or trans unless you are chaste and even then the likelihood is very slim you'd get through seminary. In many protestant churches, you can. I don't see how that's promoting anything. That's just true. It's no different than other people wondering aloud why the Catholic church is seen as based sometimes.
There are also a lot of protestants who don't care that much about gay and trans people. As a kid I never knew anything about queer people, positive or negative. The idea was to shelter us from it entirely. Later the line was always "love the sinner, hate the sin", but nothing detailed or vicious. Homosexuality would only come up in the context of sexual misconduct generally, so it wasn't officially worse than premarital sex or watching porn.
When I got older, I never felt animosity towards gay and trans people. Which led to me questioning the religion when I encountered Christians who actively hated gay people.
Absolutely. But there is no question that trans and queer people must be protestant if they want to be both truly themselves and truly accepted in a church. Until the pope or the condoms approve pro-trans and pro-queer teachings, there literally is no other option. Quakers, unitarians, and other progressive denominations have been ahead of curve here.
What in the fuck are you talking about
Clarified down below. Happy to answer any other questions you may have about trans rights within Christianity and the fight for their inclusion in Christian and wider society.
Yeah I think protestantism is just like a super super wide net especially in America. Most protestants are actually much worse than catholics
So in general, I agree. The braying hogs in both pews are about equal with evangelicals being worse. But Catholics and conservative prots have been in cohoots since J Edgar Hoover to reject anything threatening white, het cis domination (I just read a book about this, I'll edit this when I remember it). But within the actual power structure of the two, there's no comparison. Catholics haven't even embraced female leadership nevermind gay leadership. Not even white het women can be priests.
Within mainline protestantism, lgbtq have been embraced and elevated to positions of power for decades. Several denominations were on the front lines of this before and during the AIDS crisis, for example. The justice cornerstone of mainline protestantism melded into queer/trans rights in the past two decades for many. Catholics are great on most social justice issues, but horrible on gender and sexuality.
Yeah I guess I just don't know. When I hear about American protestants I think of baptists, Mormons, and more generally evangelicals. I was raised catholic and obviously have left the church. The church is quite conservative but yeah there are definitely some protestant churches that are progressive it's just a mixed bag really.
Perhaps, but I think it's still worth pressing that again, in every Catholic institution, women and trans folk are not allowed to be priests. Gay men can be only if they are chaste. That's centuries behind many protestants who have had women leadership since Calvin, and at least a half century behind on the other.
There are those that uphold imperialism, and there are those who don't. Mainline prots elevate marginalized people to leadership and accept them as they fully are. Catholicism (along with evangelicals, Mormons, etc) does not. Inclusion cannot simply mean allowed to partake in mass. It has to include those voices to actually guide the church, and that's something rarely found (though thankfully Vatican 2 did help here).
Yeah I guess my thing is that I don't really think it's very useful to talk about protestants as a whole becuase it's such a wide net to cast. Like, we can talk about progressive protestant sects and leave behind reactionary sects, instead od saying nebulous "Protestants are more progressive" because in some cases that's literally not true. There are protestants sects that don't allow dancing. So I would say be more specific is all. Also I don't really have a dog in this race because I'm an atheist
Yeah that's a completely fair criticism. Appreciate it comrade