“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”.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
The Pope’s comments came to light on Monday when two Italian newspapers - the Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica – reported on the May 20 meeting, citing sources in attendance.
Francis’ comments were made in the context of proposals from the Italian bishops to amend guidelines on candidates to seminaries.
The Vatican ruled in 2005 that the church cannot allow the ordination of men who are actively gay or have “deep-seated” homosexual tendencies.
Two years later he told the Italian bishops not to accept gay candidates for the priesthood.
A source close to the Pope told CNN that the phrase could also be understood as there is a “gay climate” in the seminaries.
The original article contains 371 words, the summary contains 144 words. Saved 61%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I wonder why gay people keep feeling called to the vocations that don’t let you marry and instead surround you with people of your gender
I always thought it was somewhat the opposite. When a society does not accept gay people as people, religious orders (priest/sister/brother) is an acceptable way to not have relationships with the opposite gender.