Pope Francis allegedly repeats homosexual slur, opposes homosexual males in priesthood | EUROtoday

The Vatican mentioned the pope “reiterated the need to welcome and accompany gay men in the Church” however had known as for prudence concerning their entry to the priesthood.

The 87-year-old pontiff has beforehand made landmark statements in help of same-sex civil unions, performed LGBTQ+ outreach and final yr authorised brief blessings for same-sex {couples} by Catholic clergymen. But Francis — who famously mentioned, “Who am I to judge?” when requested about homosexual clergymen shortly after turning into pope in 2013 — has additionally expressed warning about admitting gay males to seminaries. He has primarily backed a 2005 Vatican ruling that “homosexual candidates cannot become priests because their sexual orientation estranges them from the proper sense of paternity.”

Major Italian media retailers — together with Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica and ANSA — reported that the pope throughout Tuesday’s assembly additionally repeated the phrase “frociaggine,” which within the Roman Italian dialect roughly interprets as “faggotness.”

Two weeks in the past, a senior Vatican official confirmed to The Washington Post that the pope had used the identical phrase in a unique May 20 assembly with bishops. Eight days after that assembly, and following studies that the pope had used the slur within the Italian press, the Vatican supplied a uncommon apology. Without confirming that the pope had used the phrase, the Vatican then mentioned that “the Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms and he apologizes to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others.”

A Vatican spokesman didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the pope’s alleged use of the phrase once more.

Citing sources that had been current on the assembly, Corriere della Sera additionally quoted the pope as saying that “gay people are good guys [and] have nice paths of faith.” But in the event that they sought the priesthood, they need to be as a substitute directed to a religious information or “to some psychologist.” If they turned clergymen, the outlet quoted the pope as saying, homosexual males had been more likely to “fail while exercising their ministry.”

Francis has been identified to talk way more colloquially than previous popes, and observers have argued that the pope could not notice the slur he employed is taken into account offensive. Though born and raised in Argentina, he hails from an Italian household and has spoken the language from a younger age.

Some theologians mentioned the slur was much less essential than the pope’s apparent stance towards homosexual males turning into clergymen.

Andrea Grillo, professor of sacramental theology on the Anselmianum, a pontifical college in Rome, mentioned that “we should focus on his underlying assumption that homosexuals shouldn’t be made priests, which is the real issue here.”

“The pope seems convinced of [the veracity of outdated] theories according to which a homosexual won’t be able to remain chaste, and thus cannot be ordained,” Grillo mentioned. “That theory is groundless, but I have the feeling [Francis still] believes it to be true.”