Hear
ROME.- In a closed-door meeting that he had this Tuesday with some 200 Roman priestswhen referring again to the question of whether homosexuals can enter seminaries, Pope Francis would have once again used the term “frociaggine“, vulgar and derogatory Italian expression towards gaystranslatable as “faggot” or “puterío”, which two weeks ago created a stir after leaking from another reserved meeting with Italian bishops and for which he had apologized.
This time, in a dialogue with Roman priests that he had in the Aula Magna of the Salesian University, The Pope would have said that “in the Vatican there is an air of frociaggine”according to what sources present told the ANSA news agency, in a story reported by various Italian media.
The former archbishop of Buenos Aires, 87, also would have reiterated that if a young man has a homosexual tendency it would be better not to make him enter a seminary: These are “good guys”, but with this trend, it’s better than not.
The statement that the Vatican Press Office released after the meeting indicated, in effect, that the Pontiff, in the end, When he referred to the danger of ideologies in the Church “he spoke again on the issue of admitting people with homosexual tendencies to seminaries, reiterating the need to receive and accompany them in the Church, and the prudential indication of the Dicastery of the Clergy regarding his entry into the seminary.”
He thus alluded to an instruction from the Dicastery of the Clergy from 2005, when the pope was Benedict XVI, which was confirmed by Francis in 2016, which established that the “The Church, while deeply respecting the people in question, cannot admit those who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture.”.
The statement also reported that during the dialogue many other pastoral topics were discussed, the role and identity of priests, the beauty of being a priest, loneliness, and the importance of closeness. In addition, the situation in Europe and the world, the ongoing wars, the enormous investments in weapons, contraceptives, veterinary expenses and cosmetic surgeries. “In that sense, the Pope urged us to work in the social teaching of the Church, to a greater commitment to the common good, to peace and, in times of abstentionism, towards politics, ‘the highest form of charity’” , the statement stated.
Two weeks ago, the leak of the same word, “frociaggine”, from a meeting that Francis had on May 20, always behind closed doors, with more than 200 bishops of the Italian Episcopal Conference, had caused a great stir. After another question about the admission of gay candidates to seminaries, the Pope reportedly told them to be careful since “there are already too many frociaggine [mariconada]”.
That leak, first in Italian and then international media, caused such a scandal and angry reactions among LGBT+ groups that, with unprecedented speed, the Vatican had come out to do damage control and clarify that the Pope apologized to those who had felt offended.
Francisco “he never wanted to offend or express himself in homophobic terms and apologizes to those who felt offended by the use of the term”assured the papal spokesman, Matteo Bruni, who also recalled that more than once the Pope said that “In the Church there is room for everyone, everyone!” and that “no one is useless, no one is superfluous, there is room for everyone.”
That the Pope used the expression “frociaggine“, which derives from “frocio” (homosexual, in derogatory terms), It scandalized many in Italy given the vulgarity of the term -probably not captured by a non-Italian-, especially taking into account the openness that Francis had towards this group from the beginning of his pontificate, asking himself “who am I to judge a gay if he seeks God?”, in the press conference returning from his first international trip to Brazil, for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro.
Although the Pope himself had spoken, in that same context and on other occasions, of the existence of a gay lobby.
Many priests admitted that it is true that in some ecclesiastical environments a gay climate reigns. “The Pope is right about the fact that the number of homosexual seminarians and clerics is very high,” said Francesco Lepore, former priest, journalist and LGBTQ+ activist. “But the simplicity of language has nothing to do with vulgarity”criticized this priest, who highlighted, however, the openings made by the Argentine pontiff, who denounced the bishops who do not condemn the criminalization of homosexualssaid he agreed with the legal guardianship of gay couples and recently even gave the green light to non-liturgical blessings for homosexual couples.
Meanwhile, Monsignor Francesco Savino, vice president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, in an interview with the Corriere della Sera He assured that the scandal phrase that was leaked was taken out of context, that the Pope is far from being homophobic and that the leak was used “to divide” and harm by those who oppose the Pope.
