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Pope Francis during an audience: "To abolish differences means to abolish humanity"
Photo: Evandro Inetti / ZUMA Press Wire / dpa
Pope Francis has described “gender ideology” as the “ugliest” danger of today.
It eliminates the differences and makes everything the same, said the head of the Catholic Church at an audience.
"To eliminate differences means to eliminate humanity." However, men and women are in a "fruitful tension," the pontiff continued.
The Pope has repeatedly criticized gender theory, according to which gender identity is determined by socio-cultural factors.
In 2016, he complained about attempts at “sneaky indoctrination with gender theory” with regard to French school textbooks.
In 2019, the Vatican published a text intended to help teachers in Catholic schools counteract "gender ideology" that denies "the natural difference between men and women."
According to the Vatican, the 87-year-old has been suffering from a “mild flu” for several days.
He therefore had an employee read out the rest of his speech.
“I still have a cold and get tired when I read for a while,” said Francis.
The Pope's health has been increasingly troubling for some time.
In the past few months he has had several problems with inflammation of the respiratory tract.
aeh/AFP/dpa