Pope Francis recently used an insulting and vulgar term when speaking about homosexuals in the Catholic Church, several Italian media said on Monday, May 27. During the assembly of the Italian bishops’ conference a week ago, the pope reportedly urged bishops not to welcome openly homosexual people into religious seminaries, saying there were already too many âfagsâaccording to a translation that comes closest to the word used.
He used a word from the dialect of Rome, âfrociaggineâconsidered in Italian as vulgar and insulting towards homosexuals.
âAccording to the bishops contactedâ speak Corriere della Sera, âit is obvious that the sovereign pontiff was not aware of how insulting his remarks were in Italianâwrites the main Italian daily on its site. âMore than embarrassment, his remarks were greeted with some incredulous laughter because of the gaffeâ of the pope, whose mother tongue is not Italian, âwas obviousâcontinues the newspaper.
Daily life La Repubblica gives the same information, citing several corroborating sources. The newspaper recalls that Pope Francis has always campaigned for a Church welcoming to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, but he insisted during this meeting on the ban on seminars for openly homosexual people.
When questioned, the Vatican did not react immediately.