“In the Church there is a place for everyone.” Pope Francis has asked sorry this Tuesday after controversy generated after it was leaked that in a closed-door meeting with the Italian bishops he asked that homosexuals not be admitted to the seminaries because “There was already a lot of faggot” in them.
“He never had the intention to offend or express in homophobic termsand apologizes to those who felt offended,” the Vatican press office reported this Tuesday.
The word used by the Pontiff, as reported on Monday by the Corriere della Sera and republic, In that meeting it was frociagginewhich translates into Spanish as “faggot,” a very derogatory to describe the LGTBI community.
[El Papa Francisco, a los curas toledanos que desearon que “fuera al cielo”: “Les tengo lástima”]
“Pope Francis is aware of the recently published articles about a conversation, behind closed doors, with the bishops of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) and as he has noted on several occasions: “In the Church there is a place for everyone, for everyone! Nobody is useless, nobody is superfluous, there is room for everyone. Just as we are, all of us,” says the Vatican note.
In this closed-door meeting, the Whether to admit openly homosexual candidates to seminaries and to what extent. Despite reiterating the need to welcome everyone, the Pope was categorical in his rejection of such a possibility, reaffirming the Church’s position on this matter.
The Pope’s controversial phrase, uttered on May 20, unleashed some “incredulous laughter” among those present, since according to Il Corriere della Sera echoing episcopal sources,“It was evident that he was not aware of how offensive what that word is in Italian”.
What the Pope wanted was to reiterate the position of the Catholic Church with an instruction from the Clergy Dicastery that in 2005, with Benedict XVI, and confirmed in 2016 by Francis who established that “the Church, deeply respecting the people in question, cannot admit into the seminary and Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, have deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture“.
It is not the first time that the Pope asks for forgiveness during his pontificate. He had to apologize publicly for reprimanding a Chinese woman who abruptly grabbed his hand and pushed him towards her, when he greeted the faithful in St. Peter’s Square in 2020.
“Many times we lose patience, me too. I apologize for yesterday’s bad example,” Francis said then.
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