Pope Francis is reported to have used derogatory language about gay men: he said that there is already too much of an air of frociaggine in the Catholic Church.
When asked at the Italian Bishops’ Conference if gay men should now be allowed to train for the priesthood as long as they remained celibate, Pope Francis said they should not.
Curiously, though the meeting took place behind closed doors, the Pope’s reported comments were conveyed to the Italian tabloid website, Dagospia.
Other Italian news agencies have since confirmed the Pope’s words citing numerous sources.
The use of this word seems incongruent with Francis’s quite progressive attitude regarding the LGBT community.
When asked about gay people early in his papacy, he hit the headlines by responding, “Who am I to judge?”
He recently created consternation among Catholic traditionalists by saying priests should be able to bless same-sex couples in some circumstances and has frequently talked of gay people being welcome in the Church.
Some had started to feel that he was laying the groundwork to ultimately permit gay men to train for the priesthood, as long as they remained celibate like other priests, says the BBC.
It might be important, however, to remember that Francis as a native Spanish speaker does sometimes make mistakes in Italian colloquialisms and suggest that he did not appreciate the level offence he might have caused – though he did grow up in an Italian-speaking household in Argentina, though in a different area.
The Vatican has not yet commented.
