The Vatican announced on Tuesday that Pope Francis “apologises” after reports he used a derogatory slang term for homosexuals during a closed-door meeting with 250 Italian bishops last week.
As Pope Francis was answering questions at the bishops' annual meeting, the issue of whether to allow openly gay men into seminaries and priestly training schools came up.
According to several people who attended the meeting and spoke anonymously to Italian media outlets, Francis firmly said no, saying the seminary was already filled with “frociaggine,” a derogatory Italian slang term for gay people.
“Pope Francis is aware of the recent reports about closed-door conversations,” Matteo Bruni, head of the Vatican's communications office, said Tuesday. “The Pope had no intention of using homophobic language or causing offense and apologizes to those who have been offended by the use of language reported by others.”
The incident was first reported by gossip website Dagospia and was subsequently picked up by major Italian news outlets.
Pope Francis has been widely credited with urging the church to be more welcoming to the LGBTQ community and has largely delivered a message of inclusivity.
“If someone is gay and he seeks God and has good intentions, I have no right to judge,” he said shortly after becoming pope in 2013. The pope also meets frequently with gay rights activists and last year decided to allow priests to bless same-sex unions.
Opening up to the LGBTQ community has drawn backlash from conservative Catholics. The decision to bless same-sex unions, for example, has been widely criticized by bishops in conservative parts of the church, including many parts of Africa, who say the practice goes against church doctrine.
The Vatican quickly clarified that the blessing was not an official ceremony and did not undermine the church's teaching against same-sex marriage.
At the same time, the Church remains firm in its decision not to allow openly gay men to become priests.
A document issued in 2005 under the rule of Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, excluded most gay men from the priesthood, with few exceptions, and made strong and specific exclusions for candidates who “are actively homosexual, have deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support so-called 'gay culture.'”
The document allowed ordination only to candidates who had experienced “transient” homosexual tendencies that were “clearly overcome” at least three years before being ordained as a diaconate, the final step before becoming a priest.
Under Pope Francis, the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy issued a document in 2016 reaffirming the 2005 ban, writing that the church could not ignore “the negative consequences that may result from the ordination of persons with deep-rooted homosexual inclinations.”
In an interview published as a book in 2018, Pope Francis stressed his concern about relationships in which gay candidates for the priesthood and other religious offices take vows of celibacy and chastity and lead a double life.
“In consecrated or priestly life, there is no place for these kinds of affections,” the Pope wrote in his book, “and for this reason the Church counsels not to accept into the priesthood or into the consecrated life those who have these deeply rooted tendencies.”
Francis had already voiced those concerns to Italian bishops, saying in another closed-door session in 2018 that men with “deep-rooted” homosexual inclinations should not enter seminaries, Italian media reported.
“When in doubt, do not let them in,” the Pope told the bishops.
The comments sparked backlash, with some progressives warning they could incite hostility toward LGBTQ Catholics within the church.
Pope Francis reportedly used the derogatory term last week while answering a question at the Italian Bishops' Conference, which recently adopted a document on seminary regulation, which has not been made public as it awaits Vatican approval.
Francis DeBernardo, director of New Ways Ministries, an advocacy group for LGBTQ Catholics, said he welcomed the pope's apology for using “careless colloquialisms” but was disappointed “that he did not clarify what exactly he meant when he said he would ban gay priesthood.”
“Without clarification, the pope's statement could be interpreted as a blanket ban on gays entering seminaries,” De Bernardo said, calling on the pope to more clearly express his view of “the many gay priests who faithfully serve the people of God every day.”
A 2019 New York Times article profiled about 20 U.S. priests and seminarians who detailed their lives as gay within the church. While only a handful of priests in the U.S. have come out publicly, gay priests and researchers estimate that at least 30 to 40 percent of the U.S. Catholic clergy are gay men. Like all Catholic priests, they have taken a vow of celibacy.
Some Italian media outlets covering the incident have suggested that Francis was using the term in jest or that the Pope, who is not a native Italian speaker, did not realise the seriousness of the slander.
Though Francis is known for his casual and friendly manner of speaking, verbal gaffes are not uncommon.
Shortly after being elected pope, Francis told nuns that they should be mothers, “not single women.” Two years later, speaking to reporters at an in-flight press conference, Francis told them that if a friend insulted the pope's mother, “they would hit me! It's normal! It's normal.” And in 2015, he spoke about birth control: “It's a nice thing to say, but some people believe that to be a good Catholic you have to be like a rabbit. You don't. You have to be a responsible parent.”
And this wasn't his first public apology: In December 2020, Francis apologized after a video was released that showed him slapping twice the hand of a woman who grabbed him while he was greeting the faithful. “Many times, our patience reaches its limit,” he said at his weekly audience the day after the incident. “And so do I. I'm sorry for yesterday's bad example.”
A Vatican spokesman in a statement on Tuesday declined to confirm whether the pope used the words reported by Italian media because the Vatican does not reveal what the pope says behind closed doors, but said Francis “repeatedly said, 'There is a place in the Church for everyone and for everyone! There are no useless, no superfluous people. There is a place for everyone, for everyone, just like us.'”