After reports of Pope Francis using ‘vulgar term’ to describe gay men, the Vatican on Tuesday issued an apology.
Reportedly, the Pope made the 'derogatory comments' during a closed-door meeting with bishops in Rome on May 20.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a statement acknowledging the incident. In a statement, the Vatican said that the Pope did not intend to use homophobic language and apologised to anyone offended by it.
The Pope “never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms and apologises to those who felt offended by the term reported by others," read the statement. 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.
According to two prominent Italian newspapers 'La Repubblica' and 'Corriere della Sera', Pope said seminaries were already too full of "frociaggine", a vulgar Italian term roughly translating as "faggotness".
The comments were made at the Italian Bishops Conference (CIE), where the discussion was centred on the amendment of guidelines to accept candidates to seminaries. On whether gay men should be admitted to Catholic seminaries, the Pontiff is said to have reiterated his vehement opposition to the idea.
Stating that while it was important to embrace everyone, he said "it was likely that a gay person could risk leading a double life." He is then alleged to have added that there was already too much "frociaggine" in some seminaries.