Since early in his reign, Pope Francis has faced sharp criticism from Conservatives and traditionalists for alleged Modernist beliefs. Some of his more vocal critics accuse Francis of differing with unchangeable Church teaching on the sin of sodomy. These allegations stem from misrepresented statements he made in 2013 and, more recently, his signing of a DDF document allowing blessings for repentant same-sex-attracted persons.
But in a major setback for his detractors, more recent accounts report Pope Francis reaffirming the Church’s ban on gay priests in no uncertain terms.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis used a highly derogatory term towards the LGBT community as he reiterated in a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops that gay people should not be allowed to become priests, Italian media reported on Monday.
La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera, Italy’s largest circulation dailies, both quoted the pope as saying seminaries, or priesthood colleges, are already too full of “frociaggine”, a vulgar Italian term roughly translating as “faggotness”.
Related: DDF Vindicates Francis on Fiducia
Checking the cited sources appears to confirm the Pope’s unequivocal condemnation of seminaries’ tolerance for homosexual behavior.
La Repubblica attributed its story to several unspecified sources, while Corriere said it was backed up by a few, unnamed bishops, who suggested the pope, as an Argentine, might have not realised that the Italian term he used was offensive.
Reuters did not elaborate on who the term was offensive to, and by what standard.
Political gossip website Dagospia was the first to report on the alleged incident, said to have happened on May 20, when the Italian Bishops Conference opened a four-day assembly with a non-public meeting with the pontiff.
Related: Francis out of Context
The silence from Pope Francis’ harshest critics, as well as gay activists who’ve exploited past vague statements, has been deafening in the wake of the Holy Father’s latest comments.
Of note is the mainstream media’s rush to judge the See of Peter which, according to the Code of Canon Law, is judged by no one.
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Glad to hear good news about him. I’m trying not to wholeheartedly accept the doom-pilled narrative about Francis, but, having no direct access at all, I really have no idea whom or what to believe.
Believe Jesus, I think is the best course. The OG Peter had many faults, but his orthodoxy was never in question. I know it’s harder for those incoming from Protestant backgrounds. Growing up Catholic, though, the Pope truly is just there like a Rock. The pope is the only office with a specific set of protections from the Holy Spirit invested by Christ himself.
Our Jesuit Pope speaks like a sincerely learned Jesuit in public and it sounds like a proper Italian in private. 🙂 The media was always going to spin the long explanations to their liking. It does not help that what constitutes modern “right wing/conservative” Catholic punditry gets clicks from believing the wishful thinking of the left.
My own hypothesis: The Holy Father really does think and speak like this, thinks that he needs to take care not to let it slip into sins against charity, and thinks that’s the predominant attitude among Catholics worldwide–hence his solicitude towards those who are ‘reaching out to the marginalized.’
This as charitable a hypothesis as I have seen. It means that we’re assuming Pope Francis is taking his office seriously, which by all appearances is true.
I had read enough of the official Vatican press releases, letters, etc to be convinced of Pope Francis’ orthodoxy. It was always the left spinning a narrative that the right was sucking up uncritically for reasons of their own. I’m glad to hear that our Peter has lost none of the fisherman about him, despite all that learning.
As time as goes on, I’ve been sort of wishing a)I spoke Italian and b) could have a semi- private discussion with Pope Francis, just for fun. It seems like a more interesting guy than I first imagined. I am also pleased that all those trad media sites seem to be entirely wrong about him.
I’m sure that Pope Francis has made remarks like these before based on his personality and his constant firm opposition to homosexual unions, especially as the story seems to about something said in a private setting. Previously this sort of thing would have been buried, so the real question is why is it being reported on now?
Normally I would say that we are at the point where the knives are out, and Pope Francis changes in the media narrative from “the cool liberal pope who is going to change everything to fit the death cult agenda” to “the evil bigoted pope who represents everything wrong with Christianity.” The same thing happened with JPII (and in reverse after he died) and if I recall correctly they even tried the “this pope might change everything” on Benedict XVI before quickly changing course.
But if you look at the reporting from AP, the National Catholic Distorter, CNN, etc. none of them are really hit pieces. Most try to claim that he didn’t really know what the word meant and repeatedly stress that he is the “who am I to judge” pope. So the knives are not out, but this bit of information wasn’t buried.
I really don’t know what to think. My only guess is that someone outside the media complex got this trending on social media which then caused the media to feel obligated to do the minimal amount of reporting to acknowledge what had happened while simultaneously keeping their narrative intact.
The answer is that they already tried the “regressive, bigoted pope” smear when Francis first took office. They even tried to tar him with the fascist brush over various South American political shenanigans. That was back when the press was still in “pope=Nazi” mode from B16’s reign. It got them nowhere with Francis, so they switched to the “He’s secretly one of us, guys!” narrative.