Just two weeks after apologizing for using a gay slur, Pope Francis has allegedly repeated it again behind closed Vatican doors, thus reiterating his opposition to gay men working in the priesthood as priests.
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On Tuesday (June 11), major Italian news outlets — including Corriere della Sera, la Repubblica, and leading Italian news agency ANSA — reported that during Tuesday’s meeting with about 200 Roman priests at Rome’s Salesian Pontifical University, Pope Francis, 87, allegedly repeated the word “frociaggine,” which in the Roman Italian dialect roughly translates as “f*ggotness.”
ANSA reported that Pope Francis allegedly said, “There is an air of f*ggotness in the Vatican,” further suggesting that it would be better for young gay men to avoid working as priests. In a statement following Tuesday’s meeting, The Vatican reportedly did not mention the use of the derogatory word, but said that Pope Francis had spoken of the “danger of ideologies in the Church.”
The Vatican further reportedly stated, “[Pope Francis] reiterated the need to welcome and accompany gay men in the Church,” but had called for prudence regarding their entry to the priesthood.
As mentioned, Pope Francis previously used the gay slur and apologized before allegedly repeating the word this week. Two weeks ago, a senior Vatican official confirmed to The Washington Post that the pope used the same gay slur in a different meeting on May 20 with bishops. Eight days after the meeting and subsequent reports about the gay slur used, the Vatican offered a rare apology.
The Vatican opted against confirming whether or not Pope Francis used the gay slur, but it said that “the Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms and he apologizes to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others.”
However, before his use of gay slurs, Pope Francis had first made landmark statements in support of same-sex civil unions, conducting LGBTQ+ outreach, and just last year, he approved short blessings for same-sex couples by Catholic priests.
Shortly after becoming pope in 2013, Francis famously said, “Who am I to judge,” when asked about gay priests. Following his landmark comments and commitments to the LGBTQ+ community, Pope Francis has expressed caution about welcoming gay men to the priesthood; a view that essentially supports a 2005 Vatican ruling stating that “homosexual candidates cannot become priests because their sexual orientation estranges them from the proper sense of paternity.”
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