CV NEWS FEED // Pope Francis in a Tuesday meeting with 200 priests reportedly used a crass slang word for homosexuals again while discussing his opposition to such men entering the Catholic priesthood. The news comes just weeks after Francis faced backlash for using the same word while discussing a similar topic with a gathering of bishops.
“Francis reportedly repeated the slur in a meeting with 200 priests at Rome’s Salesian Pontifical University, according to major Italian outlets,” The Washington Post reported Tuesday:
Major Italian media outlets — including Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica and ANSA — reported that the pope during Tuesday’s meeting also repeated the word “frociaggine,” which in the Roman Italian dialect roughly translates as “faggotness.”
Reuters reported that, according to Italian news sources, Francis told the gathered priests that “there is an air of faggotness in the Vatican” as he explained his opposition to men with homosexual tendencies entering seminaries.
CatholicVote reported last month on the initial report of Francis’ use of the word “during a closed-door meeting with the Italian Bishops’ Conference (known as CEI) gathered in Rome on May 20.”
According to a report published in the Italian newspaper of record Il Corriere della Sera, Francis’ comment was part of “a conversation about a very serious issue, which has concerned the CEI for some time: whether and to what extent to admit homosexual candidates for the priesthood into seminaries.”
“According to the story,” CatholicVote reported,
Francis, while reiterating the need to welcome everyone, expressed in colloquial language: “Nei seminari c’è già troppa frociaggine,” literally meaning “there is already too much fa**otry in the seminaries.”
The word “frocio” is very much like the word “fa**ot” in English, since it is both dated and offensive.
After international blowback against Francis’ reported May 20 comment, the Vatican press office issued a statement on May 28. Francis “never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms,” the statement read, “and he extends his apologies to those who were offended by the use of a term, reported by others.”
Reuters this week questioned the Vatican about Francis’ repeated use of the controversial word. The Vatican press office responded to the publication by making “reference to a statement it had issued regarding Tuesday’s meeting with the priests, in which the pope reiterated the need to welcome gay people into the Church and the need for caution regarding them becoming seminarians.”
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