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CV News Feed // Among Pope Francis’ many teachings, his warnings against “ideological colonization,” especially concerning gender, stand as a defining legacy.
From the earliest days of his pontificate, Pope Francis spoke out against the imposition of foreign ideological priorities like abortion, contraceptives, and sterilization onto cultures. He described what he called “ideological colonization” as the attempt to force new, secular, moral frameworks upon nations, especially those in the developing world, through political, economic, or educational pressure by tying acceptance to aid.
“In Europe, America, Latin America, Africa, and in some countries of Asia, there are genuine forms of ideological colonization taking place,” he asserted in his meeting with Polish bishops in July 2016. “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 saw in gender ideology not just an intellectual error but a direct assault on the human person, especially children. In multiple addresses, he lamented that children were being taught that gender is fluid, disconnected from biological reality. He called this a “global war” against marriage and the family, warning that such distortions were not simply academic theories but deeply harmful interventions into the lives of the vulnerable.
Speaking to the Central African Bishops in May 2015, he said, “I cannot but encourage you to give marriage all the pastoral care and attention it deserves, and not to be discouraged in face of resistance caused by cultural traditions, human weakness or the new ideological colonization that is spreading everywhere.”
Despite his often pastoral approach to those struggling with gender identity, Pope Francis did not waver in his conviction that the truth of the human person must be upheld. His concerns also extended beyond gender ideology to a broader critique of radical individualism and the loss of objective truth of the differences between men and women.
“Gender ideology, today, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations. Why is it dangerous? Because it blurs differences and the value of men and women,” he said in a 2023 interview published in La Nación, an Argentinian newspaper, calling “ideological colonization” “extremely dangerous because it eliminates differences, and that erases humanity, the richness of humanity, both personal, cultural, and social, the diversities and the tensions between differences.”
