The Pope also said he had discussed the subject with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who told his successor: “Your Holiness, we are living in an age of sin against God the Creator.”

Pope Francis said this sin was often given financial backing by “very influential countries”: a form of “ideological colonization,” the Pope said, which is “terrible.”

The Pope said that one example—“I’ll say it clearly with its first and last name—is gender.”

Francis told the Polish bishops: “Today, children are taught this at school: that everyone can choose their own sex. And why do they teach this? Because the books come from those people and institutions who give money,” he said.