At least two U.S. Catholic colleges are adopting gender-inclusive housing policies as part of their acceptance of a new gender ideology described as "demonic" by no less than Pope Francis himself.

The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco (USF) will have the new housing policies for the 2016-2017 academic year that will allow students of different sexes to share a room based on gender identity, The Crusader reports.

Gender ideology has been called "demonic" and a threat to the family by Pope Francis, according to The Cardinal Newman Society.

The Pope reportedly made the statement condemning "gender ideology" in a private conversation with Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun in 2014.

His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, also reportedly spoke against gender ideology, calling it "a negative trend for humankind," and a "profound falsehood," which "it is the duty of pastors of the Church" to put the faithful "on guard against."

The USF recently updated its gender-inclusive housing description to indicate that students should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that "human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth."

Holy Cross explained that its new housing policy is "required by applicable law," citing Title IX in the policy section.

Its student housing agreement states that "the College maintains separate housing for the different sexes as permitted by applicable law, including Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. The College also assigns housing on the basis of gender identity as required by applicable law."

According to The Crusader, the new policy at Holy Cross was led by a student who was concerned about the housing rule "as someone who identifies as genderqueer, neither male nor female."

The USF launched last year a new rule offering "gender-exclusive housing" to students who ""identify as transgender" or "do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity."

It updated its description to say that the gender-inclusive housing is for students who are transgenders, gender queers, students who are transitioning from one gender to another, students who do not conform to society's expectations of their assigned gender at birth, students who don't wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity, and those who are in the process of discovering their gender identity.

The policy also encourages male and female students to use the same bathroom, described as communal.

Its community standards recognise that human beings are not created male and female, contrary to Church teachings that "God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) compiled statements of Pope Francis about the harms of gender ideology.

"The crisis of the family is a societal fact. There are also ideological colonisations of the family, different paths and proposals in Europe and also coming from overseas," the Pope said. "Then, there is the mistake of the human mind — gender theory — creating so much confusion."

A statement by the Pope in April 2015 said the embrace of gender ideology "creates a problem, not a solution."

In response to President Barack Obama's executive order on "gender identity discrimination" in July 2014, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York called gender identity a "false idea that 'gender' is nothing more than a social construct or psychological reality that can be chosen at variance from one's biological sex."