Report: Pope Francis uses anti-gay slur in private session, Italian outlets claim
Rome - Pope Francis has once again employed a disparaging term against the LGBTQ community, a controversial word he had previously apologized for using last month, as per ANSA news agency's report on Tuesday.
It was mentioned that the pope made use of a vulgar Italian term roughly translated as "f***ing gay" during a private gathering with Italian bishops on May 20th.
ANSA claimed the Pope repeated this term on Tuesday as he met with Roman priests, expressing that there's "a whiff of homosexuality in the Vatican" and it's better to prevent men with such tendencies from entering the seminary.
The Vatican's press office responded to this news by citing a statement released about the Tuesday meeting with priests, where the Pope reiterates the importance of welcoming LGBTQ individuals into the Church and exercising care for allowing them to become seminarians.
Corriere della Sera newspaper previously cited anonymous bishops who reported that the pope, being Argentine, may have been unaware of the offensive nature of the Italian term he used.
In April, a close source revealed that the phrase can also be interpreted as there being a "gay atmosphere" in the seminaries.
The Vatican determined in 2005 that the church shouldn't ordain men who are actively gay or have "deep-seated" homosexual inclinations. In 2016, Francis confirmed this rule.
Two years later, he told Italian bishops not to approve gay candidates for priesthood.
Francis, aged 87, had been acclaimed for making significant outreaches toward the LGBTQ community during his eleven-year papacy.
However, these recent apparent blunders have some Vatican analysts doubting his authority and raising doubts about his plans for Church reform.
Additional reporting by CNN’s Christopher Lamb and Sharon Braithwaite.
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Despite the controversies surrounding his use of anti-gay slurs, Pope Francis emphasized the importance of welcoming and caring for LGBTQ individuals in the Church, especially in regards to seminary admissions. The Pope's remarks about homosexuality in the Vatican have sparked discussions about his stance and authority in the global context of Europe and the world.
