Vatican issues apology after Pope Francis’s ‘homophobic’ slur
Al Jazeera
Pope Francis ‘apologises to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others’, Vatican spokesman says.
Pope Francis has issued an apology after he was quoted as having used a highly derogatory word to describe the LGBT community, the Vatican said.
Italian media reported on Monday that Francis used the Italian term “frociaggine”, roughly translating as “f****try”, in a private meeting last week when he was asked whether gay men should be allowed to train for the priesthood provided they remained celibate.
Italian political gossip website Dagospia was the first to report the alleged incident, said to have happened on May 20 when the pontiff met Italian bishops behind closed doors.
“The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he apologises to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement on Tuesday.
Francis was addressing an assembly of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, which recently approved a new document outlining training for Italian seminarians.
