ROME (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis reportedly used the vulgar term “faggotry” (“frociaggine”) again during a meeting with 160 priests where the Pontiff also discussed the issue of homosexual men entering seminaries.
According to major Italian news outlets, Francis told the priests present during the closed-door meeting at Salesian Pontifical University on Tuesday that “there is an air of faggotry in the Vatican.”
During the same meeting, the Pope also returned to the issue of admitting men with homosexual tendencies to Catholic seminaries.
The Vatican Press Office reported that Francis spoke about “the danger of ideologies in the Church” and reiterated “the need to welcome (men with homosexual tendencies) and accompany them in the Church and the prudential indication of the Dicastery for the Clergy regarding their entry into the seminary.”
While the statement did not specify which document by the Dicastery for the Clergy the Pontiff was referring to, it appears that Francis was reaffirming the general prohibition on allowing men with homosexual tendencies to enter seminaries.
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According to Italian news agency ANSA, Francis said that men with a homosexual inclination were “good guys” but should not enter seminary with their condition.
The 2005 Vatican instruction on the matter issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education and approved by Pope Benedict XVI reiterated the Church’s prohibition on men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” being admitted to seminary or Holy Orders. The document was reaffirmed by the Vatican under Pope Francis in 2016.
Pope Francis’ back and forth on the issue of homosexual men in seminaries
Pope Francis has appeared to go back and forth on the issue of homosexual men in the seminary in recent weeks. On May 20, during a meeting with the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), Francis reportedly used the term “faggotry” when asked about the possibility of admitting homosexual men to Catholic seminaries.
The Italian outlet Dagospia was the first to report Francis said that “in the Church, there is too much of an atmosphere of faggotry.” Dagospia claimed that he also said that bishops must, therefore, “get all the queers (checche) out of the seminaries, even those only semi-oriented.”
On May 28, after Francis’ comments had created an international scandal, the Vatican issued an apology for the use of the term, which it described as “homophobic,” an LGBT activist phrase. The Vatican said the Pope “extends his apologies to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others.”
In its statement, the Vatican added Pope Francis’ quote, “In the Church, there is room for everyone, for everyone! No one is useless, no one is superfluous, there is room for everyone. Just as we are, everyone.”
In early June, reports of a letter that the Pope had allegedly written to a young man who was dismissed from a seminary for being a practicing homosexual generated headlines. The Pope appeared to encourage the homosexual man to pursue the priesthood, contradicting Catholic teaching and his previous public statements. He told the 22-year-old to “go forward with your vocation,” stressing that “Jesus calls everyone, everyone.” The Vatican has not denied the authenticity of the reported letter.
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That instance is not the first time that reports of Pope Francis affirming pro-LGBT groups or individuals in their sinful practices and ideologies have come out. The openly homosexual priest Father James Alison said that the pontiff affirmed his homosexuality in a private phone call in 2017. In 2023, the Pope reportedly told LGBT activist groups, including New Ways Ministry, to “go forward” with their activities during a private meeting at the Vatican.
The Pope also has an extensive record of promoting heretical, pro-LGBT clerics like Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego and LGBT activist priests like Father James Martin, SJ. Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, of Luxembourg, whom Francis appointed the relator general of his Synod on Synodality, has said that he believes Church teaching on the sinfulness of homosexual acts is “false.”
In December, Francis approved the heterodox document Fiducia Supplicans authored by Cardinal Victor Fernández, head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Because it endorses the “blessing” of homosexual “couples,” it drew condemnations from bishops around the world, including Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Cardinal Robert Sarah, and the majority of the African bishops.
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