In the meeting with the young people of the Centro San Lorenzo in Rome, on Friday June 7th, the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Msgr. Jean Laffitte, after the Mass for the Feast of Sacred Heart of Jesus, which he presided, gave a lecture, followed by a debate, on “The Theory of gender and its consequences on the family Institution”.

Bishop Laffitte explained how the theory of “gender,” «by relativizing the sexual differentiation—the biological sexual identity—, exalts the so-called “lived sex,” i.e., the subjective perception of the individual's identity». Msgr. Laffitte argued how this perspective is based on «an individualistic conception of the relationship with one’s body and that of others, without any reference to the objective foundations in natural law». «Gender is hence inscribed — the Secretary said — in a relativistic culture that accepts as a rule only the individual’s desire».

 

With regard to the laws that are spreading throughout different countries, for the legal recognition of homosexual unions in the form of marriage, Msgr. Laffitte, recalling the Church’s teaching, quoted “Evangelium Vitae” (n. 70): «The morality of a law cannot be provisional and changeable majority opinions, but only the acknowledgment of an objective moral law which, as the natural law written in the human heart, is the obligatory point of reference for civil law itself».
 

The prelate, therefore, encouraged the young people from different countries, to «believe in love and in hope, staying every day more closely united to the Forgiveness of Christ, the Master of love to the point of self-giving».