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CV NEWS FEED // Pope Francis has apologized for his use of a deprecating slang term against gay men in seminaries.
“The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who felt offended by the use of a term, reported by others,” reads a May 28 statement from Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, according to Vatican News.
“Pope Francis is aware of the articles that came out recently about a conversation, behind closed doors, with the bishops of the CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference),” the statement adds:
As he has said on several occasions, “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”.
As CatholicVote previously reported, during the May 26 meeting with the bishops of the CEI, “Pope Francis used demeaning Italian slang to highlight that openly gay men should not be admitted to Italian seminaries.”
The CEI has reportedly prepared a document about seminarian admission that has not yet been approved by Pope Francis. According to CatholicVote, the document reportedly indicates that the bishops of the CEI have a consensus “that there should be a spirit of ‘greater openness,’ even if candidates with ‘deeply rooted tendencies’ should still not be admitted into a seminary.”
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that the bishops posited during the closed-door meeting that “even a homosexual can be admitted [to seminary] if he shows that he has made ‘a serious choice’ of chastity.”
Francis responded, according to Corriere della Sera, “with what appears to be a radical ‘no’.”
