Pope Francis. (AP)

While Bruce Jenner’s pretend transformation into a woman is dominating the news this week and being applauded by liberals, it merits noting that Pope Francis has condemned the idea of “gender theory” on several occasions, calling it “an error of the human mind” and a notion that “does not recognize the order of creation.”

In describing modern-day “Herods” that “plot designs of death, that disfigure the face of man and woman,” Pope Francis cited nuclear weapons, “genetic manipulation” and “gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation,” as quoted in LifeSiteNews, referencing the 2015 book, Pope Francis: This Economy Kills.

"Let's think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings,” said the Pope. “Let's think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation."

"With this attitude, man commits a new sin, that against God the Creator,” said the Pope. “God has placed man and woman at the summit of creation and has entrusted them with the Earth. … The design of the Creator is written in nature."

On his March 23 trip to Naples, Pope Francis spoke with young people, as translated in LifeSiteNews, and said, “Gender theory is an error of the human mind that leads to so much confusion."

“So the family is under attack,” he said.

Also, in his General Audience at the Vatican on April 15, the Pope continued his instruction on the complementarity between man and woman and the family.

In those remarks, he said, “As we all know, sexual difference is present in so many forms of life, on the great scale of living beings. But man and woman alone are made in the image and likeness of God: the biblical text repeats it three times in two passages (Genesis1: 26-27): man and woman are the image and likeness of God. This tells us that it is not man alone who is the image of God or woman alone who is the image of God, but man and woman as a couple who are the image of God.”

“Experience teaches us: in order to know oneself well and develop harmoniously, a human being needs the reciprocity of man and woman,” said Pope Francis. “When that is lacking, one can see the consequences.”

Those consequences fuel confusion and error, said the Pope. “For example, I ask myself, if the so-called gender theory is not, at the same time, an expression of frustration and resignation, which seeks to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it,” he said. “Yes, we risk taking a step backwards.”

“The removal of difference in fact creates a problem, not a solution,” said Pope Francis.

Seeking to change or dissolve the complementarity between man and woman produces intellectual, social and spiritual darkness, the Pope continued. “God entrusted the earth to the alliance between man and woman: its failure deprives the earth of warmth and darkens the sky of hope,” he said in his April 15 audience.

The order established by God between man and woman and creation is the key to harmony, said the Pope.

“The great responsibility of the Church, of all believers, and first of all of believing families, which derives from us, impels people to rediscover the beauty of the creative design that also inscribes the image of God in the alliance between man and woman,” said the Pope.

He continued, “The earth is filled with harmony and trust when the alliance between man and woman is lived properly. And if man and woman seek it together, between themselves, and with God, without a doubt they will find it. Jesus encourages us explicitly to bear witness to this beauty, which is the image of God.”