Pope Francis apologises after being quoted using vulgar term about ...

Pope Francis apologised after he was quoted using a vulgar term about gays to reaffirm the Catholic Church’s ban on gay priests. Photo / AP

Pope Francis has apologised after he was quoted using a vulgar and derogatory term about gay men to reaffirm the Catholic Church’s ban on gay priests.

The ruckus that ensued underscored how the church’s official teaching about homosexuality often bumps up against the unacknowledged reality that there are plenty of gay men in the priesthood, and plenty of LGBTQ+ Catholics who want to be fully part of the life and sacraments of the church.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a statement acknowledging the media storm that erupted about Francis’ comments, which were delivered behind closed doors to Italian bishops on May 20.

Italian media had quoted unnamed Italian bishops in reporting that, while speaking in Italian during the encounter, Francis jokingly used a term which translates in English to “f*****ness”.

He had used the term in reaffirming the Vatican’s ban on allowing gay men to enter seminaries and be ordained priests.

Bruni said Francis was aware of the reports and recalled that the Argentine pope, who has made outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics a hallmark of his papacy, has long insisted there was “room for everyone” in the Catholic Church.

“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,” Bruni said.

With the statement, Bruni carefully avoided an outright confirmation that the pope had indeed used the term, in keeping with the Vatican’s tradition of not revealing what the pope says behind closed doors.

But Bruni also didn’t deny that Francis had said it.

And for those who have long advocated for greater inclusion and acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics, the issue was bigger than the word itself.

“More than the offensive slur uttered by the pope, what is damaging is the institutional church’s insistence on ‘banning’ gay men from the priesthood as if we all do not know (and minister alongside) many, many gifted, celibate, gay priests,” noted Natalia Imperatori-Lee, chair of the religious studies department at Manhattan College.

“The LGBTQ community seems to be a constant target of offhand, off-the-cuff ‘mistakes’ from people in the Vatican, including the pope, who should know better,” she added.

The 87-year-old Argentine pope often speaks informally, jokes using slang and even curses in private.

He has been known for his outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics, however, starting from his famous “Who am I to judge” comment in 2013 about a priest who purportedly had a gay lover in his past.

He has ministered to transgender Catholics, allowed priests to bless same-sex couples and called for an end to anti-gay legislation, saying in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “Being homosexual is not a crime”.

However, he has occasionally offended LGBTQ+ people and their advocates, including in that same interview where he implied that while homosexuality wasn’t a crime, it was a sin.

He later clarified that he was referring to sexual activity, and that any sex outside marriage between a man and a woman was sinful in the eyes of the church.

And most recently, he signed off on a Vatican document asserting that gender-affirming surgery was a grave violation of human dignity.

New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics, welcomed Francis’ apology and said it confirmed that the “use of the slur was a careless colloquialism”.

But the group’s director Francis DeBernardo questioned the underlying content of the pope’s comments and the overall ban on gays in the priesthood.

“Without a clarification, his words will be interpreted as a blanket ban on accepting any gay man to a seminary,” DeBernardo said in a release, asking for a clearer statement on Francis’ views about gay priests “so many of whom faithfully serve the people of God each day”.

Andrea Rubera, a spokesperson for Paths of Hope, an Italian association of LGBTQ+ Christians, said he was incredulous when he first read about the pope’s comments, and then sad when no denial came from the Vatican.

It showed, he said, that the pope and the Vatican still have a “limited view” of the reality of LGBTQ+ people.

“We hope, once again, that the time will come to undertake a discussion in the church toward a deepening of the LGBT issue, especially from the experience of the people themselves,” he said.

- AP