EGN NEWS DESK
Pope Francis repeated an anti-gay slur throughout a gathering with clergymen in Rome on Tuesday, Italian information shops 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 stories by two of probably the most distinguished 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 stories cited nameless sources they mentioned had been current on the assembly.
The New York Times 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 personal assembly with Italian bishops, in accordance with a number of individuals current on the assembly who spoke anonymously to the Italian information media.
Those stories ignited widespread backlash and drew an apology from the pope, issued by means of the director of the Holy See’s press workplace, who mentioned: “The pope by no means supposed to offend or specific himself in homophobic phrases, and he extends his apologies to those that had been offended by means of a time period, reported by others.”
According to Vatican News, the Holy See’s on-line information web site, Tuesday’s assembly occurred on the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome. There, it mentioned in its abstract, the pope “spoke in regards to 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 Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere.
Francis has been extensively 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 clergymen to bless same-sex {couples}.
But the earlier stories in regards to the pope’s use of the homophobic slur upset and alienated some members of the L.G.B.T.Q. neighborhood, inside and out of doors the church.
After the stories in May, 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 distinguished champion for the L.G.B.T.Q. neighborhood, wrote on social media then: “There shouldn’t be an excessive amount of ‘frociaggine’. There are too many homophobes.”
