On 22 December 2008, the pope gave an end-of-year message to the Roman Curia in which he talked about gender and the important distinction between men and women. The pope said that the Church viewed the distinction as central to human nature, and "asks that this order of creation be respected". The Church, he said, must "protect man from self-destruction." He said "something like a human ecology" was needed, adding: "Rain forests deserve indeed to be protected, but no less so does man". He attacked gender theories which he described as "man's attempt at self-emancipation from creation and the Creator."