Gender-theory confusion calls for magisterial response, Dutch cardinal says

November 08, 2016

Cardinal Willem Eijk of Utrecht, Netherlands, has suggested that the rapid spread of confused thinking caused by gender theory may require a formal response in the form of a papal document.

Speaking in England, the Dutch cardinal told the Cahtolic News Service that Catholic families are beginning to accept gender theory because “they don’t hear anything else.” He said that clear teaching by the Church is needed, and a papal document addressed to the question “might appear to be necessary.”

“From the point of moral theology, it’s clear,” Cardinal Eijk said. “You are not allowed to change your sex in this way.” But parents are increasingly influenced by a secular ideology that suggests gender is a question of individual choice.

Catholic teaching should be reinforced, the Dutch cardinal said, at a time when society is becoming less tolerant—even while preaching the virtue of tolerance. He remarked that “people have to accept this certain view of man: this dualistic view of man and this view of the body as something that is moldable.”

 

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Further information:

• Dutch cardinal says papal encyclical on gender theory might be needed (CNS)