Gays in seminaries: Pope Francis' shocking remarks

Be advised: The article includes a derogatory term used to refer to homosexual men

In just a few hours, the word went around the world. On May 20, before the Italian bishops at their Plenary Assembly, and behind closed doors, Pope Francis allegedly said there was too much “faggotry” in Italian seminaries.

The use of this word, revealed in the late afternoon May 27 by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, occurred during a meeting detailed by La Croix on May 24. During a 90-minute question-and-answer session with 270 bishops present in the Vatican’s Synod Hall, two bishops asked the pope about homosexual candidates for the priesthood.

In response, he said it would be better not to welcome them into the clergy because of the “problems” he felt their presence would create, participants told La Croix. Francis invoked his “experience” and advocated accompanying rejected candidates. “Above all, don't tell the journalists,” he added.

According to several witnesses quoted by La Repubblica, it was in this context that he used the word "frociaggine" a Roman slang term used to refer to homosexual men in a derogatory way.

In Rome, some of the Argentine pope's defenders were already attributing the use of this word to imperfect knowledge of the Italian language. As of the evening of May 27, the Vatican had not reacted. “According to the bishops contacted” by Corriere della Sera, “it is clear that the pontiff was not aware of how insulting his words were in Italian,” the leading Italian daily wrote on its website.

On December 18, Pope Francis authorized the blessing of same-sex couples in a statement issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Faced with the outcry provoked by the publication of this text, he repeatedly affirmed that it was never a question of blessing “unions”, but “persons.”

In the early months of his pontificate, Francis made his mark with a famous phrase: “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?” But in the past, he also alluded to the need for parents wishing to “cure” children with homosexual tendencies to have recourse to psychiatry. At the time, those remarks, which were made in 2018, caused a scandal.