He stated, “This is why we must present the true vision for man in this world. Otherwise we will lose our way.”
He said that the Church’s vision can be understood both on the basis of pure reason and Sacred Scripture. The human body is an essential part of the human person.
Eijk stated that “we have a spiritual and a material dimension.”
Contrary views attempt to portray the body as “something intrinsic to the human body and afterwards as a pure mean, which has value depending on how it is attributed by the person to it.” This view allows the human being to dispose of the body “in a substantial way” and can be used to justify assisted suicide and abortion.
While the cardinal acknowledged the pope’s earlier attempts to address gender theory in his address, he stated that they do not address the issue as a central theme.
Pope Francis in 2015’s Laudato si’, a 2015 encyclical, emphasized the importance of acknowledging the body’s femininity and masculinity, and its “direct relation with the environment” and other living creatures.
Acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is essential for accepting and welcoming the whole world as a gift from God and our common home. While thinking that we have absolute control over our bodies can often lead to the illusion that we have absolute control over the creation, it is possible to think that we do. The pope stated that it is essential to learn to accept and care for our bodies, as well as to respect their fullest meaning, is a fundamental element of genuine human ecology.
In Amoris laetitia a 2016 postsynodal exhortation, Pope Francis stated that although masculinity and femininity “are not rigid categories,” the masculine as well as the feminine are interdependent from God’s creation. He spoke out about the need to help people, particularly young ones, accept their bodies as they were created. He also warned against pretensions to “cancelout sexual difference” because one doesn’t know how to deal.
The exhortation and the encyclical were both cited by the cardinal.
There are also other Vatican sources that deal with the subject. The Congregation for Catholic Education criticised gender theory in June 2019. In its document “Male & Female He Created Him,” it outlined the roots of the mindset as well as the movement to pass laws and policies that are compatible with its view.
Kevin J. Jones works as a senior writer at Catholic News Agency. He was awarded the 2014 Catholic Relief Services Egan Journalism Fellowship.
