Pope Francis has appeared to compare trans and genderqueer people to nuclear weapons, saying both do not ‘recognize the order of creation’.

The head of the Catholic Church has claimed people who ‘manipulate’ their bodies are similar to ‘Herods’ that ‘destroy, that plot designs of death, that disfigure the face of man and woman, destroying creation.’

The comments were made in a new book published in Italy, Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, calling on Christians to safeguard God’s order of creation.

‘Let’s think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings,’ he says.

‘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,’ the pope adds.

‘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,’ Francis says. ‘The design of the Creator is written in nature.’

‘If we fail in this responsibility, if we do not take care of our brothers and of all creation, destruction advances,’ he added.

GSN has approached the Vatican for further comment and clarification.