Pope Francis uses anti-gay f-slur while refusing to let gay men join the priesthood

For the second time in a month, Pope Francis used an Italian slur in association with his opposition to gay men in the priesthood.

The Pope reportedly repeated the word — “frociaggine,” which roughly translates to “fag**try” in English — at a meeting with 200 priests at Salesian Pontifical University in Rome, according to two major Italian news outlets, ANSA and Adnkronos.

Related: Pope Francis apologizes for saying that gay priests create “f-ggotry” in seminaries

A source close to the pontiff says he really meant to say “gay climate”.

Two weeks ago, the Vatican issued a rare apology for Francis’s use of the word at a closed-door meeting of bishops on the same subject of gay priests.

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Following the meeting Tuesday, the Vatican made no mention of the “f” word.

Francis spoke of the “danger of ideologies in the Church” and “reiterated the need to welcome and accompany gay men in the Church,” the Vatican said in a statement.

But it should exercise “prudence,” the Pope said, in admitting them into Catholic seminaries.

Francesco Langella, the director of communications for the university in Rome where the meeting took place, confirmed that the pontiff used the derogatory term yet again, according to The New York Times.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Wednesday that the pope used the term while sharing a conversation he had with a clergy member.

“A bishop came to me and told me, ‘There is too much frociaggine here in the Vatican,’” the newspaper quoted the pope as saying.

The Italian newspaper also reported the Pope said, “Gay people are good guys, have nice paths of faith.”

But if they sought the priesthood, he continued, they should be instead directed to a spiritual guide or “to some psychologist.” If they became priests, he added, gay men were likely to “fail while exercising their ministry.”

Andrea Grillo, professor of sacramental theology at the Anselmianum, a pontifical university in Rome, told the Washington Post 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,” Grillo said, that “a homosexual won’t be able to remain chaste and thus cannot be ordained. That theory is groundless.”

The Vatican ruled in 2005 that the Catholic Church would continue to prohibit the ordination of sexually active gay men or men who have “deep-seated” homosexual tendencies. Francis upheld the ruling in 2016.

Despite that, Francis has made welcoming LGBTQ+ believers an integral part of his papacy, famously asking, “Who am I to judge?” when questioned about gay priests.

In December, the Pope approved blessing same-sex couples, and he has publicly welcomed trans faithful to the Vatican. He has also disciplined conservative church officials unhappy with his LGBTQ+ outreach.

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