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With one slur, the Pope has shown his true colours on homosexuality

Following a leaked report suggesting Pope Francis used a deeply offensive word to describe the gay men working in the Vatican, Peter Stanford says it is time church-goers rejected a fundamental hypocrisy that runs through the core of Catholicism

Tuesday 28 May 2024 14:23 BST
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A leaked report said Pope Francis referred to gay men in Vatican seminaries as ‘frociaggine’ – an offensive homophobic Italian collective noun
A leaked report said Pope Francis referred to gay men in Vatican seminaries as ‘frociaggine’ – an offensive homophobic Italian collective noun (AP)

In the Christian gospels, Jesus talks a great deal about the good society, and how individuals should treat each other. One-sentence summaries are necessarily crude but, in essence, he preaches to never treat others in a way that you wouldn’t want to be treated yourself.

Pope Francis might do well to reflect on that core teaching in the light of reports that, in a recent meeting of Italian bishops, he referred to gay men in the Vatican as frociaggine, an offensive Italian collective noun that roughly translates as “f*****ry”.

It is enough to make all Catholics – many, like me, just about clinging to mass-going after the paedophile priests’ scandal and cover-up – hang their heads in despair.

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