Pope francesco he insists. In a closed-door meeting held today with middle-aged Roman parish priests, the Holy Father reportedly returned to the concept of “fagot“, already expressed in recent weeks with a series of heated controversies. Some sources who were present at the meeting reported this to Adnkronos. “There’s an air of fagotism in the Vatican“, Bergoglio would have said, also reiterating that if a boy has a homosexual tendency it is better not to let him enter the seminary. They are “good guys” but with this trend it’s better not to, Francis would have observed, underlining a not unheard of conviction.
The statements once again attributed to the Holy Father immediately caused a sensation. Just as had happened at the end of May, when, speaking with the bishops behind closed doors, Bergoglio had used the same colorful expression. “Look, there’s already an air of fagotism going around which isn’t good. There is a contemporary culture of homosexuality with respect to which those who have a homosexual orientation it is better that he is not welcomed“in the seminary because”it is very difficult for a boy who has this tendency not to fall because they come thinking that the life of a priest can support them but then they fall in the exercise of the ministry“, Francis had stated in that case, again according to what was reported by some sources present at the meeting.
“The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and apologizes to those who felt offended by the use of a term, reported by others“, the Holy See had made known, curbing the controversies that arose on that occasion. In reference to today’s meeting behind closed doors, however, a official note of the Vatican press office clarified: the Pope “he spoke of the danger of ideologies in the Church and returned to the theme of the admission of people with homosexual tendencies into seminaries, reiterating the need to welcome them and accompany them in the Church andprudential indication of the Dicastery for the Clergy regarding their entry into the seminary“.
No reference (therefore, neither confirmations nor denials) on the use of that particular politically incorrect term.
Vatican sources, however, underline that, in any case, the Holy Father did not intend to condemn homosexuals. The Church – the Pope reiterated – is open to all but what you intended to stigmatise, in the view of some present, would be the gay lobby which ideologicalizes the phenomenon.
