Pope Francis repeated his homophobic rhetoric during a meeting with priests in Rome on Tuesday, Italian media reported, using the same derogatory language he was accused of using two weeks ago. In a summary of the meeting, the Vatican said only that the pope warned against admitting gay men to Roman Catholic seminaries.
The Vatican made no mention of reports by two leading Italian news agencies, ANSA and Adnkronos, that the pope had again used the derogatory Italian slang term “frociaggine” to refer to gays, citing anonymous sources who reportedly attended the meeting.
The New York Times could not independently verify whether the pope used the term, and a Vatican spokesman declined to comment late Tuesday.
The pope was accused of using the same language last month in a private meeting with Italian bishops, according to several people who attended the meeting and spoke anonymously to Italian media outlets.
The reports sparked widespread backlash, and the Pope issued an apology through the Vatican's communications chief, saying, “The Pope never intended to offend or express homophobic language. I apologize to those who have been offended by the use of language reported by others.”
Tuesday's meeting took place at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome, according to the Vatican's online news site Vatican News. In a summary of the meeting, the site said the pope “spoke about the dangers of ideology in the Church,” and reiterated that the church should welcome people with “homosexual tendencies” but that “discretion” should be exercised in their admission to seminaries.
The Vatican said the closed-door meeting also covered “pastoral” and “current” topics such as drug abuse, low voter turnout and wars in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere.
Pope Francis has moved to welcome the LGBTQ community into the Roman Catholic Church, and has been widely praised for his message of inclusivity and his decision to allow priests to bless same-sex unions.
But previous reports of the pope using homophobic slurs have upset and alienated some members of the LGBTQ community both inside and outside the church.
After the May report, one gay priest wrote to the Jesuit publication America magazine that he was “shocked and saddened” by the comments and said “Pope Francis' homophobic remarks demand more than an apology.”
Italian politician Alessandro Zan, who is gay and a prominent advocate for the LGBTQ community, posted on social media at the time: “There are not too many 'frociaggine', there are too many homophobes.”