By Emily Crane | New York Post
Pope Francis repeated a homophobic slur just weeks after he was forced to apologize for using it while suggesting gay men shouldn’t be ordained priests, according to reports.
The pope is accused of saying “there is an air of frociaggine in the Vatican” — a disparaging Italian term roughly translating as “f—–ness” — during a closed-door meeting with roughly 200 priests at Rome’s Salesian Pontifical University on Tuesday, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported.
The 87-year-old Argentine also allegedly suggested that it was better that young men with a homosexual tendency not be allowed to enter the seminary, the reports say.
It comes less than a month after Francis sparked widespread outrage when he apparently used the same offensive term while speaking in Italian in a private meeting with a group of bishops back on May 20.
In that instance, unnamed bishops who were in the room suggested that the pope, as an Argentine, might not have realized that the Italian term he used was offensive, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported at the time.
After the initial firestorm, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a statement saying Francis — 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,” the spokesperson said at the time.
The Vatican’s press office didn’t directly address the latest alleged faux paus.
Instead, they pointed to a statement the Vatican had released earlier Tuesday about the meeting with the priests, in which the pope reiterated the need to welcome gay people into the Church and the need for caution regarding them becoming seminarians.
Francis has been credited in the past with making substantial overtures towards the LGBT community during his 11-year papacy.
Some observers of the Vatican, though, have argued his recent mishaps undermine his authority and raise questions about path he has in mind for the Catholic Church.
With Post wires
