ROME — Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Tuesday that the Holy See is “deeply concerned” about efforts to impose gender theory, which risks “destroying the dignity of the human being.”
“We are deeply concerned about the new rights, because they carry within them a new anthropological vision that clearly and substantially differs from the vision of the Christian proposal,” Cardinal Parolin declared when asked about gender rights pushed by international organizations.
“This new anthropology deprives the person of his three dimensions of relationship with himself, relationship with God, and relationship with others,” the cardinal added.
“We see the risk of destroying the dignity of the human being, his dignity and the substance of him, making him similar to a small island lost in the middle of the sea, where there is no possibility of relating to anyone,” he insisted.
Parolin stated that the imposition of the new rights “occurs above all at the level of international organizations, but also at the level of States. We must recognize that there are these ongoing attempts at ‘ideological colonization,’ as Pope Francis calls them.”
In 2016, a number of LGBT activists slammed Pope Francis after he denounced the infiltration of “gender theory” into educational materials for children.
“Today, schools are teaching children — children! — that everyone can choose their own sex. And why is this being taught? Because their textbooks are chosen by the people and institutions that give money. This is ideological colonization, promoted by very influential nations. This is terrible,” the Pope said.
Sarah McBride, a transgender woman and national press secretary of the pro-LGBT Human Rights Campaign, said at the time that Francis’ words were “not only hurtful, and frankly harmful, but really demonstrating a misunderstanding of what it means to be transgender.”
Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Catholic LGBT advocacy group, said that the Pope was ignorant about gender.
“Nobody chooses a gender identity. They discover it. Transgender people come to know themselves in a process is [sic] similar to the way that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people discover their sexual orientation,” he said.
In Tuesday’s interview, Cardinal Parolin said that the Catholic Church deals with these issues “because she has attention and love for man and defends the human person in his dignity and in his most profound choices.”
In today’s world, there is “a general unease in society, an inability to have relationships,” the prelate asserted, which proceeds from “an anthropological vision where we focus exclusively on personal desires.”
The topic of gender is inserted even in international documents that “have nothing to do with gender,” the cardinal lamented. “From this point of view, I regret to say, the Holy See is not listened to. Indeed, it creates annoyance.”
“I believe that our task is also to be faithful to the message we have to convey, without being discouraged,” he stated.
“We have to say our point of view, even if it is not immediately accepted, even if it is not immediately understood,” he declared.