The Catholic Bishops Conference of Poland have criticised “gender ideology” which holds that there are no fundamental differences between men and women and that our ‘gender’ is chosen.

In a pastoral letter, the Bishops write: “Confronted with increasing attacks against different aspects of family and social life coming from this ideology, we are compelled to speak out clearly in defence of the Christian family and the fundamental values that support it, on the one hand, and, on the other, to warn against threats stemming from propagating new forms of family life”.

“Gender ideology” the Polish bishops continue, “maintains that biological sex is not socially significant and that cultural sex which humans can freely develop and determine irrespective of biological conditions is most important. According to this ideology, humans can freely determine whether they want to be men or women and freely choose their sexual orientation… The Church unequivocally opposes discrimination on the grounds of sex, but at the same time recognises the danger of eliminating the differences existing in the sexes. The fact that there exist two sexes is not the source of discrimination; it is the lack of a spiritual reference, human selfishness and pride that need to be continually overcome.”

The letter  follows a controversy over “gender equality” classes taught in Polish pre-schools, which some parents’ groups claim are unnecessarily sexualized.

Meanwhile, Facebook recently changed its gender options for users to include ‘custom’ in addition to ‘male’ and ‘female’. People can now choose from 56 different options under ‘custom’.