Cardinal Robert Sarah, whose name often comes up on the short list of papal candidates, denounced gender ideology, same-sex "marriage," and transgender bathroom policies at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, describing them all as "demonic attacks on humanity."
Sarah, appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis in 2014, likened gender theory to "ideological colonisation" and blasted the "insidious" dismantling of religious freedom in the U.S., Newsmax reports.
"Advanced societies, including, I regret, this nation, have done and continue to do everything possible to legalise such situations," Sarah told the crowd of nearly a thousand people.
"But this can never be a truthful solution. It is like putting bandages on the infected wound. It will continue to poison the body until antibiotics are taken."
"In your nation, God is being eroded, eclipsed, liquidated," Sarah said, according to CNS News.
On same-sex marriage, the top Vatican cardinal from Africa said, "This is not an ideological war between competing ideas. This is about defending ourselves, children and future generations from the demonic idolatry that says children do not need mothers and fathers."
On transgender bathroom laws, he said: "Should not a biological man use the men's restroom? How simpler can that concept be?"
Sarah was the keynote speaker at the annual prayer breakfast, where he joined Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Sister Constance Veit, the director of communications for the Little Sisters of the Poor. Numerous Catholic bishops and members of Congress, including Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, were also in attendance, according to LifeSite News.
"The battle to preserve the roots of mankind is perhaps the greatest challenge our world has faced since its origins," Sarah said.
He urged Catholics to follow the "courageous" example set by St. John the Baptist, a martyr for the sanctity of marriage.
"Do not be afraid to proclaim the truth with love, especially about marriage according to God's plans," said Sarah. "In the words of St. Catherine of Siena, 'proclaim the truth and do not be silent through fear.'"
Sarah warned that "today we are witnessing the next stage and the consummation of the efforts to build a utopian paradise on earth without God."
This effort is in the "stage of denying sin and the fall altogether," and its fruits are the suppression of goodness, beauty, truth, and love, he said.
"Good becomes evil, beauty is ugly, love becomes the satisfaction of sexual primal instincts, and truths are all relative," said Sarah.
"All manner of immorality is not only accepted and tolerated today in advanced societies, but even promoted as a social good," he continued. "The result is hostility to Christians, and, increasingly, religious persecution. Nowhere is [this] clearer than in the threat that societies are visiting on the family through a demonic 'gender ideology,' a deadly impulse that is being experienced in a world increasingly cut off from God through ideological colonialism."
Sarah said the faithful need to do three things: Be prophetic, be faithful, and pray.
"I am confident that your efforts will no doubt contribute to protecting human life, strengthening the family, and safeguarding religious freedom not only here in these United States, but everywhere in the world," he said. "For in the end it is 'God or nothing.'"
Earlier on Monday, the heads of two U.S. Bishops' Conference committees assailed the Obama administration edict that U.S. public schools must allow "transgender" students access to the bathrooms of their choice or risk losing federal funding, LifeSiteNews reports.
The May 13 letter of "guidance" from the Obama administration fails to address the gender identity issues at hand and disregards legitimate privacy and safety concerns, said Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone and Omaha Archbishop George Lucas said in a May 16 statement.
"The guidance issued May 13 by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education that treats 'a student's gender identity as the student's sex' is deeply disturbing," the bishops said.
Also on Monday, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he would repeal Obama's federal guidelines requiring all public schools to open their showers, restrooms, and locker rooms to members of the opposite biological sex, according to LifeSiteNews.
But when asked if the issue of transgender people being able to use the restroom of their choice is "overblown," he replied, "I don't think so, because you've got to protect all people."
