BRUSSELS – Pope Francis on Friday met with students at a Catholic university in Brussels, stressing the importance of climate action and of promoting women in the Church, but without the influence of ideology. His language on women in particular generated backlash, with a statement from the university calling it “deterministic and reductive.”

Speaking to students at the Catholic University of Louvain, the pope addressed the role of women, saying, “There is much involved here, including the questions of violence and injustice, as well as ideological prejudices.”

Women, he said, are members of a communal Church and must carry out their roles as daughters, sisters, wives and mothers, just as men must fulfill their own roles as sons, brothers, husbands and fathers.

Men and women have been called into the world to love, he said, saying this must be expressed in their roles both in society and in the Church.

“What characterizes women, that which is truly feminine, is not stipulated by consensus or ideologies, just as dignity itself is ensured not by laws written on paper, but by an original law written on our hearts,” he said.

It was that phrase in particular which promoted the university to issue a note of protest.

“UC Louvain expresses its incomprehension and disapproval of the position expressed by Pope Francis regarding the role of women in the church and in society. UC Louvain can only express its disagreement with this deterministic and reductive position,” the statement said.

“UC Louvain is an inclusive university and committed to the fight against sexist and sexual violence. It reaffirms its desire for everyone to flourish within it and in society, whatever their origins, gender or sexual orientation,” the university said. “It calls on the Church to follow the same path, without any form of discrimination.”

For his part, Francis framed his reflection in terms of human dignity.

Human dignity is an innate quality that can never be taken away, he said, insisting that Christian culture seeks “to develop ever fresh understandings of the vocation and mission of men and women and their mutual being for each other in communion.”

“They are not meant to be rivals, but truly to be for each other,” he said.

Women, he said, are “at the heart of salvation history,” since it is through Mary that Jesus came into the world. Womanhood, then, “speaks to us of fruitful welcome, nurturing and life-giving dedication.”

In this regard, the pope in an off-the-cuff remark condemned sex-change and transgenderism, saying, “It’s ugly when a woman wants to be a man, no, she’s a woman!”

“Let us be more attentive to the many daily expressions of this love, from friendship to the workplace, from studies to the exercise of responsibility in the Church and society, from marriage to motherhood, or from virginity to the service of others and the building up of the kingdom of God,” he said.

Speaking to journalists afterwards, some women in the crowd on Saturday also expressed dismay about the pope’s language. Pope Francis spoke to the students as part of his Sept. 26-29 visit to Luxembourg and Belgium.

His visit to Belgium is being made largely to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the founding of the Universities of Leuven and Louvain, which date to 1425, when a single university in what is today Belgium was founded by Pope Martin V.

However, they split in the 1960s, resulting in the establishment of two separate universities: the Dutch-speaking KU Leuven and the French-speaking Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL).

Francis visited the University of Leuven Friday, where he stressed the importance of pursuing truth and was challenged by the rector to be more progressive on issues such as women’s priestly ordination and the LGBTQ+ community.

At the University of Louvain Saturday, the pope was greeted by rector Françoise Smets, who spoke about the climate emergency and the challenge of migration.

She said the university community reflected on five different themes regarding climate change, including the role of women, and compiled the results into a letter that would be presented to him.

In his speech, Pope Francis highlighted questions surrounding the issues of the future and of anxiety that the students raised in the letter.

“It is easy to see how a violent and arrogant wickedness is destroying people and the environment. It seems to know no limits and is most brutally expressed by war, but also by corruption and modern forms of slavery,” he said.

At times, the pope said, religion itself is also “corrupted” by these evils and turned into “an instrument of domination.”

“Yet this is blasphemy…God is Father, not overlord; God is Son and Brother, not dictator; God is the Spirit of love, not of domination,” he said, insisting that evil never has the last word, but actually strengthens the commitment of Christians, “for our responsibility is hope.”

To this end, Francis responded to questions the students raised on the relationship between Christianity and ecology, saying the relationship between faith and care of the environment can be summed up in three words: gratitude, mission and fidelity.

Christians must be grateful for creation because it is a gift, he said, saying, “We are not masters but guests and pilgrims on the earth. God is the first to care for it, just as he cares for us.”

Part of caring for creation means “we are meant to safeguard its beauty and cultivate it for the good of all, especially keeping in mind those who will come after us,” he said, insisting that no plan of development will succeed “as long as arrogance, violence and rivalry are on our consciences.”

“We need to go to the source of the matter, which is the human heart,” he said.

Pope Francis said ecological issues have becoming increasingly urgent, “because of the arrogant indifference rooted in the hearts of the powerful, who so often give preference to economic interests, according to which financial markets are the sole arbiters determining whether an appeal is to be taken up or silenced.”

“As long as markets are given pride of place, then our common home will continue to suffer injustice,” he said, saying the commitment to integral development requires fidelity to both God and every single person.

Alluding to the clerical abuse scandals that have rocked Belgium, he said this type of development “is contrary to all forms of oppression and rejection of others, and the Church denounces these abuses, committing herself above all to the conversion of each of her members, each one of us, to justice and to truth.”

“The choice to be made, then, is between manipulating nature or cultivating it. And we must begin with our own human nature, including questions of eugenics, cybernetic organisms and artificial intelligence,” he said.

Pope Francis then focused on their studies, giving advice on how to study, why to study and for whom to study.

To this end, he underlined the importance of community and study as a means of giving direction to one’s life. He also said studying should be done not only for the benefit of oneself, but also of others.

Francis stressed the pursuit of truth at a university, saying, “Without truth, our life loses its meaning.”

“Studying makes sense only when it seeks the truth, and in seeking it we understand that we are made in order to find it,” he said, saying, “Truth is meant to be found, for it is inviting, accessible and generous.”

“If we renounce the search for truth, then study becomes an instrument of power, a way to control others; it no longer serves but dominates. Whereas the truth sets us free,” he said.

Pope Francis closed telling students to, “Go forward and don’t enter into ideological fights,” and he asked for prayers, saying that if they don’t pray, “at least send me good waves, I need them!”

This story has been updated.

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