Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury has warned Catholic schools and colleges of the dangers of the “ideology of gender” that is spreading throughout the western world.

In a letter “On the Truth of the Human Person” sent this week to head teachers, chairs of governors and heads of religious education in the Diocese of Shrewsbury, the bishop noted that there were now “many questions” facing schools arising from the ideology of gender, the theory that personal choice is sufficient to determine a person’s gender rather than his or her biology.