The pontiff reportedly made the homophobic remark in a closed-door meeting last week as he told Italian bishops that gay men shouldn’t be allowed to train for the priesthood.

“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, as reported by others,” the Vatican said in a Tuesday statement.

“As he (Pope Francis) has said on several occasions, ‘in the Church there is room for everyone, everyone! No one is useless, no one is superfluous, there is room for everyone. Just as we are, everyone.’”

Seems like they’re playing it off as “grandpa had a woopsie”.

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    6 months ago

    The 87-year-old pontiff reportedly made the homophobic remark in a closed-door meeting last week as he told Italian bishops that gay men shouldn’t be allowed to train for the priesthood.

    Well, they’d better brace for an even more severe priest shortage then. I’ve met many Catholic priests over the years, and based on their mannerisms, I’d estimate that a sizeable minority were nearly falling out of the closet. Not a big deal IMO, as most of them were good guys as far as priests go. They cared about and wanted to do what was best for their parishioners. And they took their commitment to the church very seriously. But excluding them from the seminary will just make the current priest shortage even worse.