Pope Francis recently used an insulting and vulgar term when speaking about homosexuals in the Catholic Church, several Italian media reported Monday.
Speaking during the assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) a week ago, the pope reportedly urged bishops not to welcome openly homosexual people into religious seminaries, saying there were already too many “fags”, according to a translation that comes closest to it.
He used a word from the dialect of Rome, “frociaggine”, considered in Italian to be vulgar and insulting towards homosexuals.
“According to the bishops contacted” by the Corriere della Sera“it is obvious that the sovereign pontiff was not aware of how insulting his remarks were in Italian,” writes the main Italian daily on its site.
“More than embarrassment, his remarks were greeted with some incredulous laughter because the gaffe” of the pope, whose mother tongue is not Italian, “was obvious,” the newspaper continues.
Daily life La Repubblica gives the same information, citing several corroborating sources.
The newspaper recalls that Pope Francis has always campaigned for a Church welcoming to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, but he insisted during this meeting on the ban on seminars for openly homosexual people.
When questioned, the Vatican did not react immediately.
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