Posted on 06/09/2015 4:10:57 AM PDT by NYer
VATICAN CITY — One week after Bruce Jenner appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair wearing an ivory corset declaring he is a woman, Pope Francis again denounced gender ideology as an aberration.
Speaking to the bishops of Puerto Rico on Monday, June 8th, during their ad limina visit to Rome, the Pope said the ideology is among the most pernicious threats to marriage and family life.
“Let me draw your attention to the value and beauty of marriage,” he said. “The complementarity of man and woman, the crown of God's creation, is being questioned by so-called gender ideology, in the name of a freer and fairer society.”
But “the difference between man and woman is not for opposition or subordination, but for communion and procreation, always in the ‘image and likeness’ of God,” he said, recalling his April 15th general audience catechesis on the sexual difference and complementarity between man and woman. Without mutual self-giving, he added, “neither of the two can even understand themselves in depth.”
In the same catechesis delivered less than two months ago, Pope Francis explained that while contemporary culture has opened new opportunities for understanding the sexual difference, it has also introduced “many doubts and much skepticism.”
“For instance,” he said, “I wonder if the so-called gender theory is not also an expression of a frustration and resignation, which aims to eliminate the sexual difference because it no longer knows how to face it.”
“The removal of the difference, in fact, is the problem, not the solution.”
Gender theorists hold that “sex” may be what a person is biologically, but gender is what the person believes himself or herself to be. Such theorists posit that people should be able to identify as male, female, neither or both, despite increasing evidence to suggest that gender theory is confusing and harming children.
Earlier this year, Puerto Ricans took to the streets protesting the incorporation of gender theory in the public school curriculum.
Pope Francis concluded his remarks by reaffirming the Church’s teaching that “the Sacrament of Marriage is a sign of God’s love for mankind and the gift of Christ for his Bride, the Church.”
He therefore urged the bishops of Puerto Rico to “safeguard the treasure” of marriage, which he called “one of the most important of Latin American and Caribbean peoples.”
The Pope also called on the bishops to defend and protect the family from the many social problems that afflict it, including: “the economic situation, migration, domestic violence, unemployment, drug trafficking, and corruption.”
Diane Montagna is Rome correspondent for Aleteia’s English edition.
Catholic ping!
“Transgender is the New Black.”
A theory is an explanation that ties together observed facts and makes testable predictions of new facts possible. Theories can be refined over time to increase their predictive powers. They may not be completely accurate, especially when first developed, but they are the best possible explanation of scientific principles that account for the known, observed facts.
By the scientific definition of "theory", gender "theory" is nowhere close to being a theory. It is, rather, some misfit's idea of a utopia which they believe attainable if they can only force enough people to their way of thinking.
I do not doubt that societal views of gender make some people desperately wish they were born as a person of the other gender. However, that dissatisfaction with oneself does not constitute evidence of the silly notion that men really are born into the bodies of women or vice versa.
An infant man in the womb is subject to the shaping influences of testosterone, which he produces very early during embryonic development. That hormonal influence shapes his body and his brain, which, in turn, shapes his thinking and perception of the world. The hormonal influence becomes even stronger when the young man enters puberty. This notion that he can somehow be a "woman trapped in a man's body" is ludicrous and not supported by physical evidence. That he can be unhappy being a man, that he sensed that his parents really wanted a girl, etc., may be very true, but it is indicative that he needs psychological help, not body mutilation.
Since marriage is a sign of God’s love for mankind - then why not allow priests and sisters to marry?
There are some married priests in the Latin Rite. There are many in the Eastern Rites.
It's a discipline, not a dogma.
Jesus and St. Paul commend celibacy. It's in the Bible, and it's always been part of Tradition.
Paul was only against marriage for those who were not married seeking marriage out while preaching and traveling abroad. If you were married, or you weren’t out in the field, then it was fine, at least that’s how I have come to interpret it.
Yes, I know this, however, all should be allowed to make that choice.
You're correct, of course. But gender "theory" sounds so much more intellectual than gender "fantasy." Incidentally, it's nice to encounter someone who believes that the fact that words have meanings is a good thing.
-— Earlier this year, Puerto Ricans took to the streets protesting the incorporation of gender theory in the public school curriculum. -—
Thank God that some parents somewhere care to fight.
#transgenderpenisesdontmatter
It seems to me that we come in two varieties, male and female. After that we are people, or man (as in male and female created He them). The advertisers are the ones who took this gender thing and ran with it because imposing overly rigid social constructs on people makes them insecure, and you can sell an awful lot to insecure people.
If they want to split gender from sex, then sex is science, gender is social custom.
Good. Maybe he does know something about Catholic teachings after all.
Jesus gave the Church the authority to “bind and loose.” Jesus was using a Jewish term with a history and established meaning, I.e., ultimate ecclesiastical authority.
The Pharisees had this authority when Jesus told the Jews to “do whatever they tell you.”
Before entering the priesthood, men have the choice to marry. It’s what prevented me from becoming a priest.
As a Protestant Christian, I don’t recognize the “authority” of any church group over the Bible. Jesus is the head of the Church - not man.
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