France’s education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem has reacted angrily to remarks by Pope Francis regarding the alleged teaching of “gender theory” in French schools.
Speaking to journalists on the aircraft tkaing him
back to Rome from the Caucasus region on Sunday, Pope Francis told
journalists an anecdote relayed to him by the father of a French
Catholic family. The man had said that when his ten-year-old son was
asked during a family meal what he wanted to be when he grew up, the boy
responded, “I want to be a girl.”
“The father then realised that in schoolbooks,
‘gender theory’, which is against nature, is still taught,” the pope
said, denouncing what he called “sly indoctrination”.
The fundamentalist Christian right in France
claim that children are taught there is no difference between boys and
girls, and that one is free to choose one’s gender. This has been
repeatedly denied by the socialist government.
“I didn’t imagine that the pope would let himself be
fooled by the medacious folly of the fundamentalists. It makes me
angry,” Ms Vallaud-Belkacem said.
“The pope seems convinced that French teachers spend
their time teaching children that one can change one’s sex,” the
minister continued. “This is totally unfounded. He is the victim of a
massive disinformation campaign led by the fundamentalists of the
Lejeune foundation, Vigivender and others… I advise the pope to meet
French teachers and discuss it with them, to look at the school manuals
himself…”
The French curriculum teaches that “it’s important to
understand that one gender is not superior to the other,” Ms
Vallaud-Belkacem said. The education ministry was fighting harrassment
and violence against women. “Is it written that equality between men and
women means one can change sex? Obviously not.”
National protest
The conservative Manif Pour Tous organisation, which
staged huge demonstrations against the legalisation of same-sex marriage
in 2013, has scheduled a national protest march in a fortnight’s time
against medically assisted procreation for homosexual couples.
Pope Francis had denounced “gender theory” in the
Georgian capital Tblisi at the weekend, saying it was part of a “world
war to destroy marriage”.
He said there was a difference between “having
homosexual tendencies or changing sex” and advocating these practices in
school teaching. The attempt to “change mentalities” was “ideological
colonisation”, he said.
Ms Vallaud-Belkacem was supported by teachers’ unions
and even the conservative presidential candidate Nathalie
Kosciusko-Morizet, who told Europe 1 radio station that the pope had
“jumped to conclusions”.
Ms Kosciusko-Morizet is the mother of two boys, aged 7
and 11. “I study the school manuals closely,” she said. “I have never
found anything resembling gender theory and I have never heard anything
resembling it coming out of their school.”
When asked how homosexuals and transsexuals should be
treated, Pope Francis said they should be welcomed and integrated as
much as possible. “I have accompanied people with homosexual practices
and tendencies. I have brought them closer to the Lord,” he said.
Pope Francis said he had received a Spanish couple
after the husband wrote to him. The man had undergone a sex change
operation and married a woman.