According to sources, Pope Francis has reportedly used an offensive term for the LGBT community in a confidential meeting with Italian bishops suggesting that gay people should not be allowed to become priests. The pope spoke of seminaries being already too full of “frociaggine,” which is a vulgar term that may be translated to mean “faggotness”, as reported by Italy’s La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera.
Nonetheless, the Vatican has remained silent about all these allegations.La Repubblica cited several unspecified sources, while Corriere mentioned a few unnamed bishops who suggested the pope, being Argentine, might not have realized the term’s offensiveness.
The first report on this alleged incident came from Dagospia an Italian website on May 20 during the four day conference of Italian Bishops Conference where it began with a private meeting with the pontiff.
Pope Francis (87) has been praised for being instrumental in leading Roman Catholic Church towards embracing homosexuality. He famously said “If someone is gay and he searches for God and has good will, who am I to judge?” This year he agreed for homosexual blessings by priests within same sex marriage which resulted in strong right-wing criticism.
However, when he met with Italian bishops in 2018 he gave them a similar message concerning gay seminarians without slang but nonetheless hinted that they ought to screen their candidates well enough so as to reject any homosexuals among them.
A Vatican document released under his predecessor Benedict XVI in 2005 stated that those who had clearly overcome homosexuality tendencies within three years can be admitted into priesthood by the church.
The document also prohibited practicing homosexuals or those having deep-seated homosexual tendencies or promoting what is often termed as gay culture.
