Francis’ remark, referring to gay men, came during what was supposed to be a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops last week.
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Pope Francis has apologized for using an anti-gay slur during a meeting with bishops. The 87-year-old pontiff reportedly made the homophobic remark in a closed-door meeting last week as he told Italian bishops that gay men shouldn’t be allowed to train for the priesthood.
“The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who felt offended by the use of a term, as reported by others,” the Vatican said in a Tuesday statement.
“As he (Pope Francis) has said on several occasions, ‘in the Church there is room for everyone, everyone! No one is useless, no one is superfluous, there is room for everyone. Just as we are, everyone.’”
The Vatican said on Tuesday that Pope Francis “extends his apologies” after reports that he used an offensive slang word referring to gay men at what was intended to be a private meeting with 250 Italian bishops last week.
Francis had been taking questions from the bishops at their annual assembly when the question of whether to admit openly gay men into seminaries, or priesthood colleges, came up.
According to several people present at the meeting, who spoke anonymously to Italian news outlets, Francis stated a firm no, saying that seminaries were already too full of “frociaggine,” an offensive Italian slang term referring to gay men.
“Pope Francis is aware of articles that recently came out about a conversation, behind closed doors,” Matteo Bruni, the press office director for the Holy See, said on Tuesday. “The pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who were offended by the use of a term, reported by others.”
The Pope’s comments came to light on Monday when two Italian newspapers – the Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica – reported on the May 20 meeting, citing sources in attendance.