The Vatican formally apologized on behalf of Pope Francis, who was reported to have uttered a homophobic slur last week in a private meeting concerning the Catholic Church’s ban on homosexual priests.
The pope, according to Italian media outlets, told Catholic bishops that gay men in Vatican seminaries should not be allowed to become priests, noting there was already enough “frociaggine” in the air. The word roughly translates to “f*****ry.”
“The pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who were offended by the use of a term that was reported by others,” Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said on Tuesday.
“As he [the Pope] has stated on more than one occasion, ‘In the Church there is room for everyone, everyone! Nobody is useless or superfluous, there is room for everyone, just the way we are,'” Bruni added.
Pope Francis made the derogatory comment while discussing the Vatican’s absolute ban on homosexual priests. In 2005, Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, ruled that those who “practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture” cannot be admitted into seminary or the holy orders. The ban was reaffirmed by Francis in 2016.
However, he has taken steps to make the Catholic Church more welcoming to gay people. In December, Francis issued guidance allowing priests to bless same-sex people because “an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring” a blessing, though the Vatican clarified shortly thereafter that the blessing did not constitute a formal recognition of marital status. In October, he extended baptismal and godparent privileges to transgender individuals.
The pope’s increasingly progressive positions in recent months came after he said in August that the Catholic Church is open to everyone, including homosexuals, while noting certain rules must be followed.
Francis’s favor toward the LGBTQ+ community dates back to 2013, the first year of his papacy. “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” he famously asked.
In a 60 Minutes interview that aired last week, Francis clarified that he authorized the blessing of same-sex individuals, not the blessing of same-sex couples as a union.
“No, what I allowed was not to bless the union,” he responded to a question from 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O’Donnell. “That cannot be done because that is not the sacrament. I cannot. The Lord made it that way. But to bless each person, yes. The blessing is for everyone. For everyone. To bless a homosexual-type union, however, goes against the given right, against the law of the Church.”