Two important documents on the subject of gender ideology are due from the Vatican in the near future. The first, in the form of a letter to the episcopates of the world from the Congregation for Catholic Education, will reiterate certain important educational principles in the face the claims of what the Vatican now generally terms “gender ideology”, ie. the ideology, coming from radical feminism, that sexual or gender difference is nothing more than a nefarious “social construction”. The second document will be released by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and will deal with anthropological aspects of gender ideology. This latter promises to be a particularly important document, and one worthy of serious study when it is published.
In some ways such documents are long overdue. Gender ideology has made huge inroads into Western society in the last two decades and shows no signs of slowing down – indeed quite the contrary. Nonetheless the Pope has already delivered significant warnings on the danger of this ideology; his words in a 2016 meeting with Polish bishops are a case in point:
We are experiencing a moment of the annihilation of man as the image of God…. In Europe, America, Latin America, Africa, and in some countries of Asia, there are genuine forms of ideological colonization taking place. And one of these – I will call it clearly by its name – is [the ideology of] “gender”. Today children – children! – are taught in school that everyone can choose his or her sex. Why are they teaching this? Because the books are provided by the persons and institutions that give you money. These forms of ideological colonization are also supported by influential countries. And this is terrible! (Pope Francis, Meeting with the Bishops of Poland in the Cathedral of Krakow, July 27, 2016).
Pope Francis has spoken in the strongest terms of an ideological war being waged against marriage: “There is a world war against marriage. Today there is an ideological colonization that destroys, not with weapons, but with words. We need to defend ourselves from ideological colonization” (Tbilisi, Georgia, October 29, 2016).
It should come as no surprise that this war has arrived in Irish schools in the wake of the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum. The Provision of Objective Sex Education Bill 2018 currently before the Dáil seeks, according to its official description, “to guarantee the right of students to receive factual and objective relationships and sexuality education without regard to the characteristic spirit of the school.” In other words, a school’s ethos – as selected by the parents of the children there – will not stand in the way of an ideology which places LGBT sexual practices on a par with those that are heterosexual. (A recent government report complains that our school sex education programme “constructs heterosexual intercourse as the primary definition of sex and is not inclusive of the experiences and sexual practices of those identifying as LGBTQI+.”)
These developments are taking place by stealth, and objections to them are typically denounced as homophobic – an accusation designed to put a quick end to all objection. Pope Francis, in Amoris Laetitia, warned of gender ideology’s programme to eliminate “the anthropological basis of the family” by anulling sexual difference. He warned also that this is done by diktat, through “educational programmes and legislative enactments … which assert themselves as absolute and unquestionable, even dictating how children should be raised”. Sadly this sounds all too familiar.
Soon long ranks of enormous rainbow flags will flank the river Liffey through central Dublin and the Pride parade season will begin. Employees at large firms, at least here in Dublin, will be invited to volunteer to help out with the Parade (“or do you have a problem with that?”) and to don rainbow lanyards (“or do you suffer from some phobia we should know about?”) and shop owners will be offered rainbow stickers to display in their windows (“or does your struggling business have some objection?”). Anyone with even a modicum of knowledge of twentieth century European history will be well aware of the intimidatory power of stickers, flags and parades.
While a recent poll here suggests the faintest glimmer of a reaction (in the recent survey of Irish behaviour and attitudes 69% of people consider that Ireland has become too politically correct) we Irish have been particularly supine in our adoption of gender ideology; here there has been nothing remotely like the spirited resistance of the French “Manif Pour Tous” movement with its enormous public marches to protest against the impositions there of gender ideology.
Hannah Arendt wrote of the roles of ideology and terror in totalitarian systems; such systems must instil fear in order to crush dissent from its ideology. And we can add that truth and courage will be the weapons required to oppose such systems – including that system being constructed around gender ideology in the West. We only have to look at the great dissidents of the twentieth century – figures like Bishop Von Galen, Hans and Sophie Scholl, Cardinal Stepinac and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – all of whom fearlessly adhered to the truth in the face of some of the most awful regimes the world has ever known.
And where better is the truth about man more clearly seen than in the lives of the saints? And the witness of women saints in particular gives the lie to the radical feminist attempt to reduce femininity to a “social construct”. One such woman is Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri, beatified in Madrid on May 18. She is the first lay member of Opus Dei to reach the altars, and the fact that she is a woman is also providential. She did not need to embrace (as radical feminism has) the masculine paradigm of success. She managed to do pioneering work for Opus Dei in Mexico (a role that required her to “pack” a pistol for a time), work in the governing of Opus Dei, and do award-winning research in chemistry – all without detriment to her wonderful feminine charm, warmth and empathy. What a wonderful example she presents for other lay women in this time of carefully nurtured confusion regarding the meaning of womanhood.
Pope Benedict wrote that “The saints are God’s true constellations, which light up the nights of this world, serving as our guides.” Blessed Guadalupe is now a bright new constellation in the dark night of our times.