VATICAN CITY — The Vatican condemned gender theory on Monday as part of a “confused concept of freedom,” saying in a new document that the idea of gender being determined by personal feeling rather than biology was an attempt to “annihilate nature.”

LGBT rights advocates denounced the 30-page document, called “Male and Female He Created Them,” as harmful and confusing, saying it would encourage hatred and bigotry.

The document, the Vatican’s first on gender theory, was written by the Congregation for Catholic Education as an “instruction” to Catholic educators on how to address the topic of gender theory in line with Church teaching.

It was released as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people around the world have been celebrating “Pride Month” amid a surge in demands for acceptance of the idea that gender is more complex and fluid than the binary categories of male and female, and depends on more than visible sex characteristics.

“The concept of gender is seen as dependent upon the subjective mindset of each person, who can choose a gender not corresponding to his or her biological sex, and therefore with the way others see that person,” the Vatican booklet says.

It says gender theories are “often founded on nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants, or momentary desires provoked by emotional impulses and the will of the individual, as opposed to anything based on the truths of existence.”

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which seeks to reconcile LGBT Catholics and the institutional Church, called the booklet “a gross misrepresentation” of the lives of LGBT people that could encourage violence against them.

“The misinformation the document contains will cause families to reject their children, and it will increase alienation of LGBT people from the Church,” he said in a statement.

While the document is not signed by Pope Francis, it several times quotes from his speeches and teachings and those of previous popes. It was issued with little advance notice to reporters and without the customary news conference.
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It denounced theories that attempted to “annihilate the concept of nature” and “educational programs and legislative trends that … make a radical break with the actual biological difference between male and female.”

A prominent American Jesuit writer, Father James Martin, tweeted: “The document is mainly a dialog with philosophers and theologians, and with other church documents; but not with scientists and biologists, not with psychologists, and certainly not with LGBT people, whose experiences are given little if any weight.”

DeBernardo added: People do not choose their gender, as the Vatican claims: they discover it through their lived experiences. The Church should respect and encourage this process of discovery, because it is a process by which individuals discover the wonderful way that God has created them.” </s> The Vatican has released a new document challenging modern conceptions of gender identity.

The 31-page teaching guidance, released on Monday, is titled Male and Female He Created Them.

It speaks of an "educational crisis" and says the current debate can "annihilate the concept of nature" and destabilise the family institution.

The document, released during Pride month, has drawn immediate criticism from LGBT groups.

It was issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education as teaching instruction to those who work with children.

It is not signed by Pope Francis himself, but quotes him and scripture within its reasoning.

What does the document say?

The document calls for dialogue, but issues guidance on a number of topics including the transgender community.

Notably it criticises the modern understanding of gender as being more complex than the binary division of sexes.

It says current theories "move away from nature" and instead "towards an absolute option for the decision of the feelings of the human subject".

It also says moveable sexual identities are "often founded on nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants".

It goes on to say that gender is not decided upon by individuals but imputed by God: "The Holy Scripture reveals the wisdom of the Creator's design, which has assigned as a task to man his body, his masculinity and femininity."

The document says that institutions should teach coherently on "the true nature of human persons" on the basis of "clear and convincing anthropology".

However, it also says that children and young people should be taught to respect every person so that no-one suffers bullying or other discrimination.

New Ways Ministry, a US advocacy group for LGBT Catholics, has described the document as a "harmful tool" that will be used to "oppress and harm not only transgender people, but lesbian, gay, bisexual people, too".

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the group, rejected the notion that people "choose their gender".

In a statement, he said the document will "confuse those who sincerely struggle with questions of gender identity and sexual orientation" and described the Vatican as being in the "dark ages" on this issue. </s> The Vatican has condemned 'gender theory', the notion that people should be able to choose or change their gender, as a “confused concept of freedom” not “based on the truths of existence” in an official new document.

The Vatican booklet released Monday, titled “Male and Female He Created Them” describes gender fluidity as a symptom of the “momentary desires” that characterise post-modern culture, and claims that basing gender on self-identity rather than biology is an attempt to “annihilate nature”.

The right to “choose one’s gender”, the Vatican says in the document, is in “direct contradiction of the model of marriage as being between one man and one woman”.

The text was designed to aid Catholic teachers, parents, students and clergy address what the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education, calling gender theory an “educational crisis” in the field of sex education.

It called for a “path of dialogue” and for educators to address the issue of gender theory directly.

The advocacy group New Ways Ministry told the media it would further confuse individuals who are questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation and are at risk of self-harm.

Francis DeBernardo, head of New Ways Ministry, said such concepts are outdated, misinformed and ignore contemporary science.

“Gender is also biologically determined by genetics, hormones and brain chemistry — things not visible at birth,” Mr. DeBernardo said in a statement.

​Even priestly advocates for LGBT Catholics noted that the document seems to rely entirely on previous papal pronouncements, Vatican documents and philosophers and theologians.

Prominent Jesuit Priest Father James Martin, who has advocated for the church to more openly welcome LGBT members, said on Twitter that while the new document supports dialogue and listening, it “sets aside the real-life experiences of LGBT people”.

“The real-life experiences of LGBT people seem entirely absent from this document,” said Father Martin, author of the book Building A Bridge, on improving Catholic Church outreach to the LGBT community.

“We should welcome the congregation's call to dialogue and listening on gender, and I hope that conversation will now begin.”

The released Vatican document, as anticipated, split Twitter users, eliciting very diverse reactions.

At a time of increased secularisation, the church has been facing a challenge as many of its teachings on sexuality are being ignored as out of date. 

Pope Francis has earlier expressed an interest in outreach to LGBT followers, while adopting a definitive stance on gender identity, denouncing the fact that children are taught in schools that “everyone can choose his or her sex”. </s> VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has issued a document rejecting the idea that people can choose or change their genders.

The document issued Monday - during LGBT pride month - is the Vatican's first on gender theory. In it, the Vatican also insists on the sexual complementarity of men and women.

LGBT Catholics immediately denounced it as harmful and contributing to hatred, bigotry and violence against gay and transgender people.

Advocacy group New Ways Ministry said it will confuse people who are struggling with questions about gender identity and sexual orientation.

The text, "Male and Female He Created Them," was issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education, which said it was intended to help Catholic teachers, parents, students and clergy address the "educational crisis" in the field of teaching sexuality. </s> The Vatican released a 30-page condemnation on Monday of modern gender theory calling it a “confused concept of freedom” and adding that the concept of determining gender by emotion and not biology seeks to “annihilate the concept of ‘nature.’”

The document, titled “Male and Female He Created Them,” was written by the Congregation for Catholic Education and published as America marked Pride Month. Its purpose is to tell Catholic educators how to address gender theory while hewing to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, Reuters reported.

Portions of the document were reproduced by the Catholic News Agency.

“In all such [gender] theories, from the most moderate to the most radical, there is agreement that one’s gender ends up being viewed as more important than being of male or female sex,” the document read.

“The effect of this move is chiefly to create a cultural and ideological revolution driven by relativism, and secondarily a juridical revolution, since such beliefs claim specific rights for the individual and across society.”

The document said the differences between male and female are not up to choice.

“There is a need to reaffirm the metaphysical roots of sexual difference, as an anthropological refutation of attempts to negate the male-female duality of human nature, from which the family is generated,” the document said.

“The denial of this duality not only erases the vision of human beings as the fruit of an act of creation but creates the idea of the human person as a sort of abstraction who ‘chooses for himself what his nature is to be.’”

Gender theory, the document said, undermines the institution of the family.

“According to such theories, the only thing that matters in personal relationships is the affection between the individuals involved, irrespective of sexual difference or procreation which would be seen as irrelevant in the formation of families,” the document said.

“Thus, the institutional model of the family (where a structure and finality exist independent of the subjective preferences of the spouses) is bypassed, in favor of a vision of family that is purely contractual and voluntary.”

The document said the Church opposes “calls for public recognition of the right to choose one’s gender, and of a plurality of new types of unions, in direct contradiction of the model of marriage as being between one man and one woman, which is portrayed as a vestige of patriarchal societies,” The New York Times reported.

Advocates for LGBTQ Catholics were unsettled at the publication of the document.

“By ignoring new scientific understandings of gender identity, and by refusing to engage in dialogue with LGBT people about their lived experiences of self-understanding and faith, the Vatican remains in the dark ages, promoting a false teaching that relies on myth, rumor, and falsehoods,” Francis DeBernardo, director of New Ways Ministry, an advocacy group for LGBTQ Catholics, said, according to USA Today.

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“The document associates sexual and gender minorities with libertine sexuality, a gross misrepresentation of the lives of LGBT people which perpetuates and encourages hatred, bigotry, and violence against them,” DeBernardo added.

Contrary to the document’s claim that individuals “choose” their gender, people “discover it through their lived experiences,” he said in a statement.

Rev. James Martin, who wrote, “Building a Bridge,” which talks about the Catholic Church connecting with the LGBTQ population, had mixed feelings on the document.

“The congregation’s call for listening and dialogue about gender is a positive step, however, it seems that the congregation is listening only to philosophers and theologians rather than to LGBT people who would share their real life experiences if asked,” he said, according to The Times.

“LGBT people are usually not responding to a theory or ideology but their own inner feelings and their own desires,” he said.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards. </s> The Vatican issued an official document Monday rejecting the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisting on the sexual “complementarity” of men and women to make babies.

The document, published during LGBT Pride Month, was immediately denounced by LGBT Catholics as contributing to bigotry and violence against gay and transgender people. Advocacy group New Ways Ministry said it would further confuse individuals questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation and at risk of self-harm.

The text, “Male and Female He Created Them,” was intended to help Catholic teachers, parents, students and clergy address what the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education called an “educational crisis” in the field of sex education.

It called for a “path of dialogue” and listening on the issue of “gender theory” in education. But even priestly advocates for LGBT Catholics noted that the text appeared to have relied entirely on previous papal pronouncements, Vatican documents and philosophers and theologians.

“The real-life experiences of LGBT people seem entirely absent from this document,” said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest who wrote a book on improving Catholic Church outreach to the LGBT community, titled “Building a Bridge.” ”We should welcome the congregation’s call to dialogue and listening on gender, and I hope that conversation will now begin.“ Pope Francis has repeatedly argued the position that people cannot choose their genders. But the document represents the first attempt to put the Vatican’s position, first articulated fully by Pope Benedict XVI in a 2012 speech, into a comprehensive, official text.

The document called for a new alliance among families, schools and society to offer a “positive and prudent sexual education” in Catholic schools so children learn the “full original truth of masculinity and femininity.”

It called gender fluidity a symptom of the “confused concept of freedom” and “momentary desires” that characterize postmodern culture. It rejected terms such as “intersex” and “transgender” and said the purpose of the biological “complementarity” of the male and female sex organs was to ensure procreation.

Francis DeBernardo, head of New Ways Ministry, said such concepts are outdated, misinformed and ignore contemporary science on factors beyond visible genitalia that determine gender.

“Gender is also biologically determined by genetics, hormones and brain chemistry – things not visible at birth,” DeBernardo said in a statement. “People do not choose their gender, as the Vatican claims, they discover it through their lived experiences.”

He said the Catholic Church should encourage this process of discovery, saying it’s “a process by which individuals discover the wonderful way that God has created them.” </s> New Vatican Document Says Gender Theory is ‘Cultural and Ideological Revolution’

The document says it aims to set out an intellectual framework “towards a path of dialogue on the question of gender theory in education.”

VATICAN CITY - A Vatican department has issued a sweeping denunciation of so-called gender theory, and affirmed the principles of human dignity, difference, and complementarity.

“In all such [gender] theories, from the most moderate to the most radical, there is agreement that one’s gender ends up being viewed as more important than being of male or female sex,” the Congregation for Catholic Education wrote June 10, in a new document entitled “Male and Female He Created Them.”

“The effect of this move is chiefly to create a cultural and ideological revolution driven by relativism, and secondarily a juridical revolution, since such beliefs claim specific rights for the individual and across society.”

The document says it aims to set out an intellectual framework “towards a path of dialogue on the question of gender theory in education.”

Published at the beginning of “Pride Month,” during which many cities and corporations mark the campaign of LGBT advocacy, the document says that the Church teaches an essential difference between men and woman, ordered in the natural law and essential to the family and human flourishing.

“There is a need to reaffirm the metaphysical roots of sexual difference, as an anthropological refutation of attempts to negate the male-female duality of human nature, from which the family is generated,” the document explains.

“The denial of this duality not only erases the vision of human beings as the fruit of an act of creation but creates the idea of the human person as a sort of abstraction who ‘chooses for himself what his nature is to be.’”

The text, signed by Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, outlines the philosophical origins of the gender theory movement, and notes the broad movement to enshrine its distinct anthropology in policy and law.

The Congregation explains that, beginning in the middle of the twentieth century, a series of studies were published which proposed that external conditioning had the primary determinative influence on personality. When such studies were applied to human sexuality, the document says, they did so with a view to demonstrating that sexuality identity was more a social construct than a given natural or biological fact.

“These schools of thought were united in denying the existence of any original given element in the individual, which would precede and at the same time constitute our personal identity, forming the necessary basis of everything we do.”

“Over the course of time, gender theory has expanded its field of application. At the beginning of the 1990s, its focus was upon the possibility of the individual determining his or her own sexual tendencies without having to take account of the reciprocity and complementarity of male-female relationships, nor of the procreative end of sexuality,” the document says.

The result was a “radical separation between gender and sex, with the former having priority over the later.”

The problem with this theory, according to the Congregation, is not the distinction between the two terms, which can be properly understood, but in the separation of the two from each other.

“The propositions of gender theory converge in the concept of ‘queer’, which refers to dimensions of sexuality that are extremely fluid, flexible, and as it were, nomadic.”

The result of this ideological trend, according to the Congregation’s assessment, is an undermining of the family.

“[In gender theory] the only thing that matters in personal relationships is the affection between the individuals involved, irrespective of sexual difference or procreation which would be seen as irrelevant in the formation of families.”

“Thus, the institutional model of the family (where a structure and finality exist independent of the subjective preferences of the spouses) is bypassed, in favor of a vision of family that is purely contractual and voluntary.”

The document said that despite the challenges, dialogue remains possible. It also called for protection of human and family rights, decried unjust discrimination, and noted points of unity among people of divergent perspectives on gender ideology.

“For instance, educational programs on this area often share a laudable desire to combat all expressions of unjust discrimination, a requirement that can be shared by all sides,” the document said.

“Indeed, it cannot be denied that through the centuries forms of unjust discrimination have been a sad fact of history and have also had an influence within the Church. This has brought a certain rigid status quo, delaying the necessary and progressive inculturation of the truth of Jesus’ proclamation of the equal dignity of men and women, and has provoked accusations of a sort of masculinist mentality, veiled to a greater or lesser degree by religious motives.”

The aim of the Church at the institutional and individual level must be the education of children in line with authentic principles which defend and instil authentic human dignity, the Congregation explains.

“In practice, the advocacy for the different identities often presents them as being of completely equal value compared to each other.”

“The generic concept of ‘non-discrimination’ often hides an ideology that denies the difference as well as natural reciprocity that exists between men and women.”

Referencing classical philosophy, historic Church teaching, Vatican Council II and the writings of several popes, the document explains the Church’s understanding of a Christian anthropology, insisting that it be at the heart of human formation.

For Christians working in schools, both religious and secular, the radical individualism of gender theory should be avoided in favor of teaching children “to overcome their individualism and discover, in the light of faith, their specific vocation to live responsibly in a community.”

Above all, the document says, the family remains “the primary community” to which the students belong and the fundamental vehicle for preserving, understanding, and transmitting human dignity.

“The school must respect the family’s culture. It must listen carefully to the needs that it finds and the expectations that are directed towards it.”

In the modern context, however, the essential alliance between school and family “has entered into crisis,” the Congregation notes.

“There is an urgent need to promote a new alliance that is genuine and not simply at the level of bureaucracy, a shared project that can offer a ‘positive and prudent sexual education’ that can harmonise the primary responsibility of parents with the work of teachers.”

“Although ideologically-driven approaches to the delicate questions around gender proclaim their respect for diversity, they actually run the risk of viewing such difference as static realities and end up leaving them isolated and disconnected from each other,” the document concludes.

Promoting a culture of dialogue between the Church and those advancing gender theory principles must take place, the document says, in a manner that respects “the legitimate aspirations of Catholic schools to maintain their own vision of human sexuality,” based on “an integral anthropology capable of harmonizing the human person’s physical, psychic and spiritual identity.”

The congregation ends by insisting on the rights of the Church, the family, and of Catholic educators to defend authentic teaching and understanding in the face of an increasingly exclusivist approach to education in line with secular progressive principles.

“A democratic state cannot reduce the range of education on offer to a single school of thought, all the more so in relation to this extremely delicate subject, which is concerned on the one hand with the fundamentals of human nature, and on the other with natural rights of parents to freely choose any educational model that accords with the dignity of the human person.” </s> The text, Male and Female He Created Them, was intended to help Catholic teachers, parents, students and clergy address what the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education called an "educational crisis" in the field of sex education. It called for a "path of dialogue" and listening on the issue of "gender theory" in education. But even priestly advocates for LGBT Catholics noted that the text appeared to have relied entirely on previous papal pronouncements, Vatican documents and philosophers and theologians. "The real-life experiences of LGBT people seem entirely absent from this document," said the Reverend James Martin, a Jesuit priest who wrote a book on improving Catholic Church outreach to the LGBT community, titled Building a Bridge. "We should welcome the congregation's call to dialogue and listening on gender, and I hope that conversation will now begin." Jay Brown of the Human Rights Campaign - the largest LGBT-rights group in the United States - said the Vatican's stance "sends a dangerous message that anybody who experiences gender diversity is somehow less worthy."

The document called for a new alliance among families, schools and society to offer a "positive and prudent sexual education" in Catholic schools so children learn the "full original truth of masculinity and femininity." It called gender fluidity a symptom of the "confused concept of freedom" and "momentary desires" that characterise post-modern culture. It rejected terms such as "intersex" and "transgender" and said the purpose of the biological complementarity of the male and female sex organs was to ensure procreation. Francis DeBernardo, head of New Ways Ministry, said such concepts are outdated, misinformed and ignore contemporary science on factors beyond visible genitalia that determine gender. "Gender is also biologically determined by genetics, hormones and brain chemistry - things not visible at birth," DeBernardo said in a statement. "People do not choose their gender, as the Vatican claims, they discover it through their lived experiences."

He said the Catholic Church should encourage this process of discovery, saying it's "a process by which individuals discover the wonderful way that God has created them." "This casts everything back to the Dark Ages," said Marianne Duddy-Burke, the executive director of DignityUSA, a group that advocates for LGBT equality and inclusion in the church. "I think it is incredibly insensitive, to be talking still about gender and sexuality as a choice and a momentary whim rather than a fundamental God-given identity." The church's retrenchment hints at one of the challenges it faces at a time of growing secularisation - when many of its teachings on sexuality are being ignored as out of date. Francis has expressed an interest in outreach to LGBT followers, but he has also taken a clear stance on gender identity, decrying the idea that children are taught in schools that "everyone can choose his or her sex." "And this is terrible," Francis said in 2016. The church on Monday said it was important to listen and "understand cultural events of recent decades," but it also described a crisis in sexual education - a "disorientation" that was destabilising the family and cancelling out the differences between men and women.

The church made a case that children had the right to grow up in a family "with a father and a mother," and the document quoted an earlier Francis speech about how children benefit from seeing masculinity represented by the father and femininity represented by the mother. "It is precisely within the nucleus of the family unit that children can learn how to recognise the value and the beauty of the differences between the two sexes," the document said. Traditionalist groups lauded the 31-page Vatican document. CitizenGO, a conservative Madrid-based group that campaigns around the world, called the latest church teaching an "extraordinary guidebook." "This authoritative tool is quite clear in the condemnation of gender ideology and of the grave damage it wreaks inside society," the group said. Father James Martin, a prominent Jesuit who has advocated for the church to more openly welcome LGBT members, said on Twitter that the document calls for dialogue and listening "but sets aside the real-life experiences of LGBT people." </s> VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican issued an official document Monday rejecting the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisting on the sexual "complementarity" of men and women to make babies.

The document, published during LGBT Pride Month, was immediately denounced by LGBT Catholics as contributing to bigotry and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Advocacy group New Ways Ministry said it would confuse individuals questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation and at risk of self-harm.

The text, "Male and Female He Created Them," was intended to help Catholic teachers, parents, students and clergy address what the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education called an "educational crisis" in the field of sex education.

It called for a "path of dialogue" and listening on the issue of "gender theory" in education. But even priestly advocates for LGBT Catholics noted that the text appeared to have relied entirely on previous papal pronouncements, Vatican documents, and philosophers and theologians.

"The real-life experiences of LGBT people seem entirely absent from this document," said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest who wrote a book on improving Catholic Church outreach to the LGBT community, titled Building a Bridge. "We should welcome the congregation's call to dialogue and listening on gender, and I hope that conversation will now begin."

Pope Francis has repeatedly argued that people cannot choose their genders. But the document represents the first attempt to put the Vatican's position into an official text.

The document called for a new alliance among families, schools and society to offer a "positive and prudent sexual education" in Catholic schools so children learn the "full original truth of masculinity and femininity."

It called gender fluidity a symptom of the "confused concept of freedom" and "momentary desires" that characterize post-modern culture.

Francis DeBernardo, head of New Ways Ministry, said such concepts are outdated, misinformed and ignore contemporary science on factors beyond visible genitalia.

"Gender is also biologically determined by genetics, hormones and brain chemistry -- things not visible at birth," DeBernardo said in a statement. "People do not choose their gender, as the Vatican claims, they discover it through their lived experiences."
The Vatican issues a teaching instruction, Male and Female He Created Them, which criticizes the theory of gender as being more complex than the binary division of sexes. The document draws criticism from LGBT groups.