A Vatican department has attacked so-called gender theory [1], and affirmed the principles of human dignity, sexual difference [2], and complementarity [3].
In a new document entitled “Male and Female He Created Them” [4], the Congregation for Catholic Education 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.
The document says that the aim of the Church must be the education of children in line with authentic principles which defend and instill true human dignity. By contrast, it says, “In practice, the advocacy for the different identities [in gender theory] 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.”
In keeping with the teachings of the Catholic Church, it also says that children enjoy the right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother.
The document also underlines the primacy of parents in educating their children, which is supplemented by the subsidiary role of schools and the Church. Quoting Francis, it also says that this educational alliance has entered into crisis.