Celine Dion’s gender neutral clothing line has been called “definitely satanic” by a Catholic priest in Pennsylvania.

John Esseff, who has served as a priest in Scranton, Pennsylvania, for 65 years, said the Canadian singer’s clothing range for children, CELINUNUNU, was part of Satan’s plan, telling the National Catholic Register: “The devil is going after children by confusing gender.”

Esseff, a self-proclaimed exorcist who has served as the president of the Pope Leo XIII Institute—which trains priests to practice exorcisms—said he was “convinced that the way this gender thing has spread is demonic.”

“The devil is a liar and there are huge lies being told.”

— Catholic priest John Esseff

Stating that “there are only two” genders, the priest continued by describing the call for gender equality “satanic.”

He said: “People behind this are influencing children to disorder. This is definitely satanic. There is a mind behind it—an organised mindset.

“The devil is a liar and there are huge lies being told,” continued the Catholic priest. “This is being done for money, and there is divisiveness that comes from this—marks of the devil.”

Celine Dion explains gender neutral motivation

The “My Heart Will Go On” singer has written on Twitter that her gender neutral brand was created to “let children shine,” adding that “everything is possible, equally.”

Dion, who won the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland in 1988, has also called the clothing line a “new label that never labels.”

“Free children to choose who they are,” she added, reflecting the overriding message in her advert for CELINUNUNU, which sees Dion walk into a hospital’s neonatal unit and replace the babies’ pink and blue outfits with her own line.

The brand explains on its website that “CELINUNUNU liberates children from the traditional roles of boy/girl, and enables younger people to grow on values of equality with the freedom to strengthen their own power of personality based on mutual respect.”

Celine Dion not the first gender neutral activist attacked by religious figure

Last year, Shlomo Amar, the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem’s Sephardi community—that is, those who descend from Spanish or Portuguese Jews—condemned people who wanted a gender neutral praying space at the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism.

He said: “It’s like Holocaust deniers, it’s the same thing.

“They shout about Holocaust deniers in Iran, [but] they deny more than Holocaust deniers.”

The Chief Rabbi added that the calls for a gender neutral space came from “wicked” people who had committed “every injustice in the world against the Torah” and who he said “want to desecrate what’s holy.”