Pope Francis issued an extraordinary apology on Tuesday over his reported use of a homophobic slur in a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d the Vatican said in a statement.<\/p>\n
During a meeting with more than 250 bishops last week, the 87-year-old pontiff was said to have used an offensive term while expressing his opposition to openly homosexual men joining training colleges for priests, even if they committed to celibacy.<\/p>\n
According to two Italian newspapers, Pope Francis said there was already too much \u201cfrociaggine\u201d in seminaries, using an offensive Roman term which translates as \u201cfaggotry\u201d.<\/p>\n
The reports made headlines around the world and drew dismay from both LGTBQ groups and practising Catholics.<\/p>\n
Some commentators suggested the Argentine pope did not know what he was saying.<\/p>\n
The Vatican statement did not confirm that he used the word but referenced newspaper articles.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs he had the opportunity to state on several occasions: \u2018In the Church there is room for everyone, everyone! Nobody is useless, nobody is superfluous, there is space for everyone. Just as we are, all of us\u2019,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis issued an extraordinary apology on Tuesday over his reported use of a homophobic slur in a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops last week. \u201cThe pope never intended to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n