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| "Male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27) |
Avvenire [daily of the Italian Bishops' Conference]
An interview by Luciano MoiaFebruary 28, 2015
“The shaking up of sexual identity is a prelude for totalitarian ideologies.”Monsignor Tony Anatrella
“A cultural shift, sustained by an intellectual lobby and very powerful politics, which risks sapping the roots of the very foundations of Western civilization. Opposing and fighting it should be the task of all people of good will.”
This is what Monsignor Tony Anatrella sustains, a French priest and psychoanalyst, one of the greatest scholars in the world on the “gender-risk” and author of many essays on the same theme.
Yesterday evening at the Cultural Center in Milan, he presented two of them, the latest translated into Italian – Gender Theory and The Origins of Homosexuality and The Reign of Narcissus, both published by San Paolo.
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Q. More than once you stated that behind the origins of “gender” there is a great lie: the assertion that sexual identity can be changed according to one’s liking, along the lines of an imaginary perspective that doesn’t take into account biological facts. Why is it dangerous to encourage such a conviction?
A. Because there is the risk of creating conditions of widespread immaturity in society. And if society is “made infantile” it will encounter inevitable degeneration and disintegrate. Consequently, living together in society would become more difficult for everyone. We deceive ourselves [into thinking] we’re building freedom but instead we‘re opening the way to totalitarianism.
Q. A grim picture. Could “gender” really trigger off such collective barbarization?
A. Without question. If we claim that we’re building society on the basis of the most rudimentary impulses, without taking into account masculine and feminine sexual differences, then we’re building an ideology completely disconnected from reality. And the damages caused by the ideologies throughout the history of man are well-known.
Q. You explained that this perverse thought, originating in Western countries, is also contaminating Asia and Africa. What, concretely, are the problems that could develop from the diffusion of these theories?
A. “Gender” is a most effective weapon to destabilize families, since it is based on a false egalitarianism, fruit of an erroneous feminism, which claims to exclude the man from any decision regarding maternity. “Gender” is the prelude which allows authentic attacks on society, such as so-called “family planning”, that is, the culture of abortion as the means of birth control, imposed by the economical power of the great international organizations.
Q. Yet the theories of “gender” have managed to force their way into the legislations of numerous Western States. Is the cultural lobby that supports them really so powerful?
A. Extremely powerful. The concept of “gender” was born in the United States during the Fifties, in the wake of the feminist movements and homosexual organizations. From the Seventies onwards, in a climate of libertarianism which claimed to annul all differences in the name of a more just society with equal rights for everyone, it expanded into becoming a political weapon, influencing national legislations. Furthermore, this push towards new liberties has become an oppressive instrument. When we arrive at cancelling the names of “father” and “mother” from civil code, as has happened for example in Spain and Canada, reality is trampled upon and grave injustice is done. This is even more intolerable as it comes directly from the State.
Q. In your work as a psychotherapist you have met many children who lived with homosexual parents. Have you found any particular fragility in these young people?
A. Unfortunately yes. The facts are irrefutable, and go beyond the biased statistics. The youngsters who have had two people of the same sex as models for parenthood, risk growing up with a confused identity and present widespread psychological unease. It’s as if their psyche was faced with an antinomy difficult to unite. And mine is not an ideological position. I have built it on the basis of direct observation throughout many years of psychoanalytical work.
Q. For those who are not at ease with their own sexual orientation, is it conceivable to think of accompanying therapeutic interventions?
A. The correct premise is that nobody imagines forcing therapy on those who don’t want it. Now, if one is ill at ease with their sexual orientation, and, freely, asks to be helped, accompanying psychoanalysis may be very useful. In my forty-year experience I have followed dozens of cases. One cannot generalize. Different forms of homosexuality exist and each individual presents a specific situation and story.
Q. What type of pastoral care can be conceived for a homosexual person who lives his orientation with no conflict?
A. It is the responsibility of the Church to accompany all people in their discovery of the Word of God. Certainly, pastoral care for homosexual people is particularly difficult and demanding. It requires experienced, welcoming priests, but with specific studies behind them. Love and truth should be combined without simplifications. Mercy cannot mean justifying sexual habits in contrast with the moral doctrine of the Church.
[Source, in Italian. Translation by Contributor Francesca Romana.]
