Pope Francis Criticizes Western Sexual Agenda at the UN

By | January 12, 2023

NEW YORK, January 13 (C-Fam) In his annual address to foreign diplomats at the Holy See Pope Francis criticized Western countries and the UN for promoting gender ideology and abortion.

He told the ambassadors that education “requires showing integral respect for the person, and for his or her natural physiognomy, and avoiding the imposition of a novel and confused vision of the human being.” This was an obvious reference to gender ideology as it is currently taught in Western schools, where children are taught that sex is not inherent but assigned at birth and that children can be born in the wrong body.

Pope Francis’ speech referenced what he called “the present third world war fought piecemeal” pointing to several armed conflicts around the world, but it also included high notes against gender ideology and abortion.

“Peace requires before all else the defense of life, a good that today is jeopardized not only by conflicts, hunger and disease, but all too often even in the mother’s womb, through the promotion of an alleged right to abortion,” he said, echoing the famous 1979 Nobel Prize acceptance speech of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

The Pope emphasized that no one “can claim rights over the life of another human being, especially one who is powerless and thus completely defenseless” and called on governments to protect “the rights of those who are weakest and to combat the throwaway culture that also, tragically, affects the sick, the disabled and the elderly.”

Addressing international cooperation, Pope Francis lamented how “in recent times, the various international forums have seen an increase in polarization and attempts to impose a single way of thinking.” The Holy See has long been a critic of the agenda of the sexual left at the UN.

He said this trend is dangerously close to becoming “ideological totalitarianism that promotes intolerance towards those who dissent from certain positions claimed to represent progress.” Some UN human rights experts have called for the punishment of critics of abortion and gender ideology.

Pope Francis complained of how “more and more resources have been spent on imposing forms of ideological colonization, especially on poorer countries, and directly connecting the provision of economic aid to the acceptance of such ideologies.”

He called for reform of the United Nations system to make it “truly representative of the needs and sensitivities of all peoples, and avoid procedures that give greater weight to some, to the detriment of others.” The agenda of the sexual left at the UN generally comes from the rich northern countries and the UN bureaucracy.

Pope Francis called for an end to persecution against Christians and said that religious freedom “cannot be reduced simply to freedom of worship.” He said every person must be able to “act in accordance with his or her own conscience, also in the public sphere and in the exercise of their profession.”

He said it was wrong to “blame religion for the various conflicts within our human family” and that “Christianity is a force for peace, since it encourages conversion and the exercise of virtue.”

Pope Francis lamented the dire demographic picture emerging around the world because of low fertility and the flight from marriage.

“Tragically, we increasingly witness the emergence of a “fear” of life, which translates in many places into a fear of the future and a difficulty in creating families and bringing children into the world,” the pontiff remarked.

He emphasized that in Italy the fall in birth rates “endangers the future of society” and urged Italians to draw “strength from their religious and cultural roots.”

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