Pope Francis repeated an anti-gay slur throughout a gathering with monks in Rome on Tuesday, Italian information retailers reported, the identical offensive time period he was accused of utilizing two weeks in the past. The Vatican, in summarizing the gathering, mentioned solely that the pontiff had cautioned about admitting homosexual males into Roman Catholic seminaries.
The Vatican didn’t handle the reviews by two of probably the most outstanding information companies in Italy, ANSA and Adnkronos, that he had once more used the phrase “frociaggine,” an offensive Italian slang time period referring to homosexual males. The reviews cited nameless sources they mentioned had been current on the assembly.
The New York Occasions couldn’t independently confirm the pope’s use of the time period. A spokesperson for the Vatican declined to remark late on Tuesday night time.
The pope was accused of utilizing the identical time period final month at a non-public assembly with Italian bishops, in line with a number of individuals current on the assembly who spoke anonymously to the Italian information media.
These reviews ignited widespread backlash and drew an apology from the pope, issued via the director of the Holy See’s press workplace, who mentioned: “The pope by no means meant to offend or specific himself in homophobic phrases, and he extends his apologies to those that have been offended by way of a time period, reported by others.”
In keeping with Vatican Information, the Holy See’s on-line information website, Tuesday’s assembly befell on the Salesian Pontifical College in Rome. There, it mentioned in its abstract, the pope “spoke concerning the hazard of ideologies within the church” and reiterated that whereas the church ought to welcome individuals “with gay tendencies,” it ought to train “prudence” in admitting them into seminaries.
The Vatican mentioned the closed-door assembly additionally addressed “pastoral” and “present” themes, like substance abuse, low voter turnout in elections and the wars within the Center East, Ukraine and elsewhere.
Francis has been broadly credited with making strikes to welcome the L.G.B.T.Q. neighborhood within the Roman Catholic Church, delivering a principally inclusive message and deciding to permit monks to bless same-sex {couples}.
However the earlier reviews concerning the pope’s use of the homophobic slur upset and alienated some members of the L.G.B.T.Q. neighborhood, inside and outdoors the church.
After the reviews in Might, a homosexual priest wrote in America journal, a Jesuit publication, that he was “shocked and saddened” by the remarks and that “we’d like greater than an apology for Pope Francis’ homophobic slur.”
The Italian politician Alessandro Zan, who’s homosexual and a outstanding champion for the L.G.B.T.Q. neighborhood, wrote on social media then: “There’s not an excessive amount of ‘frociaggine’. There are too many homophobes.”
