Pope Reportedly Says Anti-LGBTQ+ Term Again, Yet Affirms Gay Priests’ Goodness
Pope Francis speaking at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome, June 11, 2024
For a second time, Pope Francis has reportedly used an anti-gay term and warned about gay men in seminary during closed-door remarks to a room of clergy. Yet, he is also reported to have met with Fr. James Martin, SJ, and affirmed gay priests.
The conflicting news has left many, perhaps most, people unclear about the pope’s actual beliefs, and, in the meantime, these news cycles are negatively impacting LGBTQ+ clergy and religious.
Italian media reported on Tuesday that Pope Francis repeated use of the Italian slur for which he previously apologized two weeks ago. The alleged remarks were made while the pope met with a group of roughly 160 priests at Rome’s Salesian Pontifical University. According to the National Catholic Reporter, Francis told the priests both to accompany people deemed “invisible” in society, while cautioning against “ideologies” in the church. The report continued:
“According to Italian news reports, one of the ideologies he specified was a gay culture, referring to it, however, by using the same derogatory slang term in Italian that he reportedly used in a closed-door meeting with members of the Italian bishops’ conference in May when describing some seminaries as being marked by a gay culture. . .
“[T]he pope said it would not be prudent to admit young men with homosexual tendencies to seminaries as candidates for the priesthood, according to the Italian news agencies, ANSA and Adnkronos, citing unnamed individuals who attended the meeting with the pope. . .These young men are ‘good kids,’ but they will encounter difficulties that will then show up in the exercise of their ministry, the pope said. . .
“What he was warning against was a kind of ‘lobby’ that turns a homosexual lifestyle into an ideology, sources told Adnkronos. ANSA reported sources said the pope used the derogatory term when talking about the Vatican, saying that ‘in the Vatican there is an air of’ a gay culture, and that it is not easy to guard against this trend.”
ANSA’s report included the Vatican press office’s summary of the meeting, which described the section on gay priests in the following way:
“[Pope Francis] spoke about the danger of ideologies in the Church and returned to the topic of the admission of people with homosexual tendencies into seminaries, reiterating the need to welcome them and accompany them into the Church and the prudential indication of the Dicastery for the Clergy regarding their entry into the seminary.”
At the same time, Fr. James Martin, SJ, announced on social media that the pope met with him yesterday and affirmed gay priests and seminiarians. Martin explained on Facebook:
“Dear friends: I was deeply honored to meet with Pope Francis for an hour-long conversation today at Casa Santa Marta. With his permission to share this, the Holy Father said he has known many good, holy and celibate seminarians and priests with homosexual tendencies. Once again, he confirmed my ministry with LGBTQ people and showed his openness and love for the LGBTQ community. It was also a great joy to receive his blessing on the 25th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood.”
The last few weeks have been tumultuous when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues and the Vatican. It was late May when reports broke about the pope using anti-gay language and being critical of gay men in seminary. Francis quickly apologized via a Vatican spokesperson, and a leading Italian bishop later clarified that the media had taken the pope’s words out of context. These reports were followed by the news that Francis told a gay Catholic man called to priesthood to, “Go forward with your vocation.”
That news cycle created a difficult moment for gay priests, some of whom spoke out and wrote about how they experienced the pope’s words and the news. Many observers, LGBTQ+ Catholics, and others were left confounded about what the pope truly thinks, too.
One of those priests, the theologian Fr. Bryan Massingale, asked Pope Francis to meet with gay priests and “listen directly and with an open heart to gay priests who faithfully serve the people of God,” so that the pope could “hear of our joys and trials, and attend to our heartaches and our deep satisfactions and “be inspired by us and our at-times heroic fidelity.” With the latest news, Fr. Massingale’s invitation for Pope Francis to act synodally and as a pastor himself is even more urgent.
—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, June 13, 2024
Related Articles
La Reppublica, “Papa Francesco a porte chiuse con i preti romani parla di nuovo di ‘frociaggine’ in Vaticano”
The New York Times, “Pope Francis Is Accused of Using a Homophobic Slur Again”
Vatican News, “Il Papa con i preti di fascia ‘media’ di Roma: allargare l’accoglienza a tutti, tutti, tutti“
After more than sixty years the universal church under Francis appears ready to pick up where Vatican II shut down. When it came to sexuality the bishops in that Council went as far as saying that there was a second purpose to marriage other than begetting children, that is fostering a loving union between the two spouses. Then they quit.
Now it’s time for that church to take a serious look at its theology of sexuality. Using homophobic slurs is not a good way to start the discussion. Would Pope Francis use a slur to describe two heterosexual persons who are falling in love? Would the pope go so far as to call their budding union an ideology? I doubt it.
Perhaps the way to begin is to start listening to the various sexual minorities. Begin with same sex couples who are living in a life giving and loving union. Instead of just offering a blessing to the indviduals in a relationship or calling them names there might be signs that this union has all the marks of a sacrament. Start talking and bring in groups of people from the margins of the church and listen to them. Reform your theology.
It also seems that the pope in trying to accept gay seminarians who are celibate invites them into to a culture that advocates “Don’t Say Gay”. Can gay priests be open about their sexuality? The popes words seems to encourage an ideology of continuing to hide.
I think we are seeing increasing cases in which the Pope is exhibiting indiscipline in his public pronouncements on Church policy issues. I find this unusual in a person of such education and experience. Is this a sign of some mental deterioration? He remains charming in his public appearances and even loving, which makes these reports even more mysterious. I would love to get John Allen’s (johnallencruxnow) take on what is going on, as he is well plugged in to things, but often his weekly presentations reveal the same confusion in discerning what Francis means in this array of contradictory public (and private) statements..
An unmentioned word Francis used twice, reported by two unnamed sources…
Apologies issued by spokespersons.
And do we really know what Francis was referring to? I can only imagine he was referring to a culture of insider gossiping and negativity and other behaviors that might leave anyone – straight or gay – uncomfortable. But that is only speculation.
Bottom line is that we don’t know what Italian word he used, we don’t know what situations in seminaries he was referring to, we don’t know the context of his comments, and we don’t know who is doing the reporting and we don’t know the motivations of the reporters.
I’m willing to give Francis some slack on these reports. After all, he has spoken and acted positively towards gay and transgender people, and praised specific gay priests. He has supported civil unions. And he has not called gay and lesbian people intrinsically disordered, nor has he condemned same gender relationships as being unloving – as his two predecessors did.
That’s not saying he and his successors don’t have a long way to go in accepting same gender relationships as equal to and as morally good as heterosexual relationships. Nor does it excuse the continued condemnation of an amorphous transgender theory.
I don’t believe Papa Francesco is anti-LGBT+. It’s not easy to tell how unacceptable some words are in other languages. In France for example it was many years after English abandoned such terms before they stopped using “mongolien” in favour of “trisomique”. I was in Rome with an LGBT+ group from London on pilgrimage one Easter (where we met up with folk from New Ways Ministry and a less confident Italian group) Papa F welcomed us by name- there was no doubt who we were! Our Cardinal Vincent also sent us warm greetings. I hope USA doesn’t elect THAT man again- he is no friend of ours.