If you ever wanted proof that gender ideology has gone too far, you now have it.

Pope Francis, who is known for his aggressively left-wing political positions, has finally come out on the right side of a cultural issue by slamming the impact of gender ideology on wider society.

According to media reports, the Pontiff made the remarks at a conference entitled "Man-Woman Image of God - For an Anthropology of Vocations." 

"It is very important that this meeting is taking place, this encounter between men and women, because the ugliest danger today is the gender ideology, which cancels out differences," the pope was quoted as saying. "I have asked for studies to be done on this ugly ideology of our time, which cancels out differences and makes everything the same; to cancel difference is to cancel humanity."

He continued:

I exist and live in relation to who generated me, to the reality that transcends me, to others and to the world around me, in which I am called to embrace a specific and personal mission with joy and responsibility. Each one of us discovers and expresses oneself as called, as a person who realizes oneself in listening and response, sharing our being and gifts with others for the common good.

Our being in the world is not a mere fruit of chance, but we are part of a design of love and are invited to go out of ourselves and realize it, for ourselves and for others. We are called to happiness, to the fullness of life, to something great to which God has destined us.

His remarks were reportedly read out by his assistant, Monsignor Filippo Ciampanelli, to prevent him getting fatigued. 

The Argentinian, who became pontiff in 2013, is notorious for hostility to the more conservative wing of the Vatican that held power under the previous Pope Benedict XVI. These positions have caused bitter divisions within the wider church, with some Catholics going so far as to call Francis a heretic. 

Just last month, at least 90 prominent Catholic leaders signed an open letter asking Cardinals and Bishops around the world to oppose Francis's plans to offer blessings to same-sex couples. 

Their letter read:

The fact is that a priest is imparting a blessing on two people who present themselves as a couple, in the sexual sense, and precisely a couple defined by its objectively sinful relationship. Therefore—regardless of the intentions and interpretations of the document, or the explanations the priest may try to give—this action will be the visible and tangible sign of a different doctrine, which contradicts traditional doctrine.

However, the 87-year-old has managed to at least hold the line on abortion and euthanasia. “You don’t play with life, neither at the beginning nor at the end. It is not played with," he said last September. “Whether it is the law not to let the child grow in the mother’s womb or the law of euthanasia in disease and old age. I am not saying it is a faith thing, but it is a human thing: There is bad compassion.”