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Pope Francis held line on gender ideology, had welcoming posture to LGBT community
The late Pope Francis sought to make the Catholic Church more welcoming to transgender and LGBTQ people, often causing stir among traditional conservative Catholics, even as he remained a staunch critic of what he called «dangerous» gender ideology.
While he maintained traditional Catholic teachings on gender and sexuality in official documents, the pontiff’s actions often told a different, ambiguous story.
«Being homosexual isn’t a crime,» Francis once said to The Associated Press in 2023. It was the first time a pope addressed the legal side of homosexual laws around the world, and LGBTQ activists praised him for it.
POPE FRANCIS DINES WITH TRANSGENDER WOMEN FOR VATICAN LUNCHEON
Pope Francis has a short and friendly conversation with Laura Esquivel, a 56-year-old transgender Paraguayan, at a March 27, 2024, audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. (Stefano Pitrelli/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Francis also called the criminalization of homosexuality «unjust,» adding that some Catholic bishops in other countries may be proponents of outlawing it for cultural reasons.
«These bishops have to have a process of conversion,» he said. «Tenderness, please, as God has for each one of us.»
Also in 2023, the controversial Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans — a declaration by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) — issued guidance for priests to bless same-sex couples. The blessings are meant for individuals, not the union itself, according to Pope Francis.
The document states that «one should neither provide for nor promote a ritual for the blessings of couples in an irregular situation.»
«At the same time, one should not prevent or prohibit the Church’s closeness to people in every situation in which they might seek God’s help through a simple blessing,» it reads.
POPE FRANCIS: ‘GENDER IDEOLOGY’ IS ONE OF THE ‘MOST DANGEROUS IDEOLOGICAL COLONIZATIONS’
Pope Francis greets cardinals as he unexpectedly appears during the Palm Sunday Mass in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 13. (Yara Nardi/Reuters)
Francis further raised concerns among conservatives when, in 2023, the Vatican ruled transgender people can be baptized and become godparents, provided their participation would not cause «confusion» or scandal.
In March of that year, Pope Francis hosted a group of transgender women — many of whom are sex workers or migrants from Latin America — to a Vatican luncheon for the Catholic Church’s «World Day of the Poor.»
The pontiff and the transgender women formed a close relationship after the pope came to their aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were unable to work. They met monthly for VIP visits with the pope and received medicine, money and shampoo any day, according to The Associated Press.
POPE FRANCIS WARNS CHURCH CANNOT BECOME ‘PROGRESSIVE’ OR ‘CONSERVATIVE’ ‘POLITICAL PARTY’
Pope Francis tours St. Peter’s Square in his popemobile after bestowing the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for «to the city and to the world») blessing at the end of the Easter mass presided over by Cardinal Angelo Comastri in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Sunday. (Andrew Medichini/AP)
Meanwhile, Pope Francis called gender ideology «one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations» in a March 2023 interview with Argentinian newspaper La Nación.
«All humanity is the tension of differences. It is to grow through the tension of differences,» the pope said. «The question of gender is diluting the differences and making the world the same, all dull, all alike, and that is contrary to the human vocation.»
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The pontiff at the time attributed the increase in gender fluidity to well-meaning people who «do not distinguish what is respect for sexual diversity or diverse sexual preferences from what is already an anthropology of gender, which is 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.»
Fox News Digital’s Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.
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Ya están los militares británicos en Israel
Planificadores militares y especialistas
Un miembro de la defensa civil busca cuerpos atrapados bajo los escombros de los edificios destruidos, en ciudad de Gaza. Foto Reuters¿Ya han comenzado el trabajo?
Israel es difícil de controlar
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Paris judge indicts Chinese woman for theft of gold nuggets from France’s Museum of Natural History
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A Chinese woman was indicted by a judge in Paris for allegedly stealing nearly $2 million worth of gold nuggets from the city’s National Museum of Natural History, including items dating back to the California gold rush.
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday that the 24-year-old suspect was charged with organized theft and criminal conspiracy following the Sept. 16 heist. She was arrested two weeks later in Barcelona, Spain, as she was preparing to return to China, it added.
Prosecutors said on the morning of Sept. 16, a museum curator was notified by a cleaning staff member of debris inside the facility and the disappearance of gold nuggets usually on display, which included an 11-pound nugget from Australia, items linked to the 19th century California gold rush and a nugget gifted by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in 1833.
An investigation determined that two doors at the museum were cut open with a circular saw. In the mineralogy gallery, the display case containing the nuggets was broken into with a blowtorch, authorities said.
LOUVRE HEIST ADDS TO HISTORY OF HIGH-PROFILE MUSEUM BREACHES, LEAVES OTHER GALLERIES ON EDGE
A mineral of gold from Australia is displayed during the exhibition «Earth’s treasures» on Dec. 18, 2014, in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France. (Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images)
At the site, investigators found a screwdriver, saws, the blowtorch and three gas canisters used to power the blowtorch, according to the prosecutor’s office.
It said surveillance footage revealed that a single person entered the museum by force around 1 a.m. on the morning of the heist.
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office estimated that the financial loss of the gold nuggets is around $1.74 million, while an additional $58,000 worth of damage was caused by the break-in. It also said the historical and scientific value of the gold pieces was priceless.
NEW VIDEO PURPORTEDLY SHOWS LOUVRE THIEVES IN ACTION DURING BRAZEN DAYTIME HEIST
The Galerie de Mineralogie of the National Museum of Natural History is seen in Paris, France. (Rachel Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images)
At the time of her arrest in Barcelona, the suspect attempted to dispose of around two pounds of melted gold pieces, prosecutors added.
They said the investigation remains ongoing, as authorities are trying to figure out what happened to the stolen items and if there are any accomplices.
In France, the organized theft charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The National Museum of Natural History in Paris was broken into on Sept. 16, 2025, prosecutors said. (Rachel Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images)
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The suspect remains in custody while awaiting court proceedings.
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Paul Ingrassia withdrew his nomination to lead a government watchdog agency on Tuesday after his inflammatory rhetoric came to a head this week in a report about race-fueled text messages he purportedly sent.
Ingrassia’s decision to remove himself from consideration to head the Office of Special Counsel came two days before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs was set to consider his nomination.
«I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time,» Ingrassia wrote on social media.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., quashed all hope of Ingrassia’s confirmation on Monday, saying, «He’s not going to pass.» When asked on Tuesday if it would be a mistake for Ingrassia to appear for his hearing, Thune laughed and said, «Yeah.»
KEY TRUMP NOMINEES STALLED BY SENATE DEMS PUTS PRESSURE ON GOP LEADERS
Paul Ingrassia, White House Liaison to the Justice Department, left, announces the release of brothers Andrew and Matthew Valentin outside the D.C. Central Detention Facility on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Pete Kiehart/The Washington Post)
Ingrassia, 30, said in a group chat, according to Politico, that he sometimes had a «Nazi streak» in him, and he used the term «moulignon,» an Italian slur for Black people, to call for doing away with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month.
The leaked chat was only the latest controversy as Ingrassia has floated around the administration serving in two different roles.
In July, Ingrassia faced a formal complaint from a lower-ranking female colleague who alleged, according to Politico, that when they arrived at a hotel for a work trip in Orlando, she found she did not have a room and was informed by Ingrassia that she would be sharing one with him. The woman, who did end up sharing a room with him, later retracted the complaint and Ingrassia also disputed it.
Ingrassia has publicly defended social media influencer and self-described «misogynist» Andrew Tate, and previously worked at a law firm that said he was on Tate’s legal team before his July 2024 admission to the New York bar. Tate and his brother face U.K. charges of rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain, filed by the Crown Prosecution Service in May 2025. They deny the allegations.
Ingrassia was first hired as a White House liaison at the Department of Justice, where he was briefly put in charge of hiring Trump loyalists at the department. But he abruptly left and took a job at the Department of Homeland Security instead.
President Donald Trump nominated Ingrassia in May to lead the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency (unaffiliated with the DOJ) that vets workplace complaints from federal employees.
TRUMP EXPLOITS LOOPHOLES TO KEEP ALINA HABBA IN US ATTORNEY ROLE, TRIGGERING COURT CLASH
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
«Paul is a highly respected attorney, writer, and Constitutional Scholar, who has done a tremendous job serving as my White House Liaison for Homeland Security,» Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.
Ingrassia rejected Politico’s characterization of the text messages, saying through his lawyer that even if they were real, «they clearly read as self-deprecating and satirical humor making fun of the fact that liberals outlandishly and routinely call MAGA supporters ‘Nazis.’»
Ingrassia has been scrutinized time and again for controversial writings, and pressure had been building on Trump to yank his nomination.
In a since deleted X post days after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, Ingrassia called the Palestine-Israel conflict a «psyop.»
Controversial influencer Andrew Tate (C) arrives at the Municipal Court of Bucharest, Romania, on June 21, 2023. (Daniel MihailescuI/AFP via Getty Images)
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A coalition of Jewish organizations was among those who called for Ingrassia’s nomination to be withdrawn.
«Mr. Ingrassia’s public statements and associations with people who espouse antisemitic, racist, and misogynistic views, raise serious questions about his ability to carry out these responsibilities with the integrity, impartiality, and commitment required of the office,» the coalition wrote.
A White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital that Ingrassia was no longer the nominee.
Alex Miller contributed to this report.
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