Pope Francis has been criticised for reportedly comparing the gender theory arguments that underpin transgender rights to nuclear weapons.

Francis criticised theories that consider people’s gender identity as not fixed and as instead a construct created by society, which are often used to advocate trans rights.

His remarks came just a month after he reportedly embraced a transgender man who asked him if he still had a place in the "house of God".

In an interview with Italian journalists which was featured in the back of his book, Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, the Pontiff compared gender theory to genetic manipulation and nuclear arms, according to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR).

He said every historical period has "Herods" that "destroy, that plot designs of death, that disfigure the face of man and woman, destroying creation" the NCR reported.

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"Let's think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings," he was quoted as saying. "Let's think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognise the order of creation."

"With this attitude, man commits a new sin, that against God the Creator. The true custody of creation does not have anything to do with the ideologies that consider man like an accident, like a problem to eliminate.

"God has placed man and woman and the summit of creation and has entrusted them with the earth. The design of the Creator is written in nature."