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, reports The Irish Times.
Speaking to journalists on the aircraft taking 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.”