Italian Media Reports Pope Francis's Controversial Remarks on LGBT Priests: Here's What He Said

Pope Francis used a derogatory term towards the LGBT community as he reiterated in a private meeting with Italian bishops that gay people should not be allowed to become priests, media reports said on Monday.

Italy’s largest circulation dailies quoted the pope as saying seminaries, or priesthood colleges, are already too full of “frociaggine”, a vulgar Italian term roughly translating as “faggotness”.

Local media outlet Dagospia was the first to report on the alleged incident, said to have happened on May 20, when the Italian Bishops Conference opened a four-day assembly with a non-public meeting with the pontiff. Francis, who is 87, has so far been credited with leading the Roman Catholic Church into taking a more welcoming approach towards the LGBT community.

‘If a person is gay…’

Earlier in 2013, at the start of his papacy, he famously said, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”, while last year he allowed priests to bless members of same-sex couples, triggering substantial conservative backlash.

He delivered a similar message on gay seminarians – minus the reported swear word – when he met Italian bishops in 2018, telling them to carefully vet priesthood applicants and reject any suspected homosexuals.

In a 2005 document, released under Francis’s late predecessor Benedict XVI, the Vatican said the Church could admit into the priesthood those who had clearly overcome homosexual tendencies for at least three years. The document said practicing homosexuals and those with “deep-seated” gay tendencies should be banned.

(With agency inputs)

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