"Being a transgender is a moment of annihilation of man as image of God," this was the conclusion of the influential progressive pontiff in a speaking engagement with the group of bishops during a trip in Poland last week.
In his statements, Pope Francis condemned gender theory---chiefly the consciousness that children in schools are taught that everyone can choose their gender. The saddened pope emphasized that this is a form of an "ideological colonization" by "very influential countries" like Europe, America, Latin America, Africa, and some countries in Asia. He reminded that it is not how gender works. There is no possibility that one can "choose" a gender anywhere.
The pope stimulated debating the issue of gender theory with his predecessor, Pope Benedict: "God created man and woman," he recalled Benedict saying. He added that the Creator made the world this way yet what is happening is the opposite.
After the remarks were released, it was mildly tagged as a disappointment. It was still fresh in people's minds when Pope Francis sympathized with the victims of the terrifying massacre in Orlando. He called for the alteration of Church's tone in reference to the LGBT community stressing that if a person is gay yet seeks the Lord and is willing, who is he to condemn or judge the person.
Marianne Duddy-Burke from LGBT Carholic organization Dignity convicted the pope's explanations as dangerous ignorance. She specified that the remarks of the pope are very troubling. It showed that he does not understand the peril that his words can mean to the gender-nonconforming people. The unsettling notions of Pope Francis regarding this issue created a bewildering relationship with the LGBT community.
