Italian media has said that the pope used a highly derogatory slur against LGBTQ+ people at a bishops conference. The remark may sour attempts by the pope to make the church more welcoming.
Pope Francis allegedly used a highly offensive term to refer to LGBTQ+ people during a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops, Italian media reported on Tuesday.
The major Italian daily newspapers La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera both cited anonymous sources as saying that the pope had made the remark while reiterating his position against gay people becoming priests.
The 87-year-old pontiff was reported as saying that the Catholic seminaries were already too full of “frociaggine” — a highly derogatory term in Italian.
That specific word in Italian has multiple meanings, one of which being something like “excessive/useless detail or addition, especially when done for the cool factor only” and another being “gayness”.
Without the full context of the sentence, it’s very hard to say what he meant or what he was saying.
Of course the word is still originating from the slur and shouldn’t be used by the pope, but it’s technically possible that wasn’t even used in relation to any minority (just as much as the opposite)
Unless I missed some extra info or source that has the full context, it’s hard to say