L | A (translated with DeepL)
Trouble in heaven? No, in the Vatican. "There is already too much 'faggotry,'" these were the words Pope Bergoglio reportedly uttered during a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops gathered in general assembly to discuss the issue of homosexuality. Several national newspapers reported the news: confirmation also came to Il Messaggero, which listened to several sources.
The episode would date back, the conditional is a must, to Monday, May 20. Day on which the Pope met with the Italian bishops gathered for their spring assembly. An occasion when Bergoglio allegedly made it clear-during the hour-and-a-half-long meeting-that "homosexual persons should not be admitted to the seminary."
The meeting
In the closed-door meeting with the more than 200 Italian bishops that opened the General Assembly of the Italian Bishops' Conference last Monday in the Synod Hall, the Pontiff on this topic launched himself into very tight calls toward greater selection in access to seminaries, not without using even colorful terms and even pointing the finger - as reported by the website Dagospia, later followed by other media - at the excess of "faggotry."
The Pontiff's severe intervention on this issue, which did not fail to surprise those present, is confirmed by several sources. Thus, for Bergoglio, homosexuals should not be allowed in seminaries. From "who am I to judge" to a now much more trance-like position, if only regarding the selection and formation of priests. The issue has been debated for many years, and already an instruction from the Vatican's dicastery for the Clergy in 2005 - under Benedict XVI - confirmed in 2016 when it was Pope Francis, stipulated that "the Church, while deeply respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the Seminary and to Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture." The Italian bishops, for their part, at their last assembly in Assisi had debated the possibility of more nuanced restrictions, feeling encouraged precisely by Bergoglio's past openings on the issue of homosexuality.
Although amid much contestation, an amendment had thus been approved that merely distinguished between "acts" and "tendencies," reiterating the obligation of celibacy for all seminarians, homosexual and heterosexual, and thus opening the door of seminaries to gay candidates for the priesthood committed, however, to the option of celibacy.
But in the hour-and-a-half-long discussion with the prelates, in fact the Pope barred the way: so respect, yes, for the gay person knocking at the seminary doors, but placing firm stakes on access to prevent the homosexual who chooses the priesthood from ending up leading a double life, with all the negative consequences of the case. And to reinforce his opinion and be clear even with a joke, Francis would explicitly recriminate about the excess of "faggotry" in certain Italian seminaries
Trouble in heaven? No, in the Vatican. "There is already too much 'faggotry,'" these were the words Pope Bergoglio reportedly uttered during a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops gathered in general assembly to discuss the issue of homosexuality. Several national newspapers reported the news: confirmation also came to Il Messaggero, which listened to several sources.
The episode would date back, the conditional is a must, to Monday, May 20. Day on which the Pope met with the Italian bishops gathered for their spring assembly. An occasion when Bergoglio allegedly made it clear-during the hour-and-a-half-long meeting-that "homosexual persons should not be admitted to the seminary."
The meeting
In the closed-door meeting with the more than 200 Italian bishops that opened the General Assembly of the Italian Bishops' Conference last Monday in the Synod Hall, the Pontiff on this topic launched himself into very tight calls toward greater selection in access to seminaries, not without using even colorful terms and even pointing the finger - as reported by the website Dagospia, later followed by other media - at the excess of "faggotry."
The Pontiff's severe intervention on this issue, which did not fail to surprise those present, is confirmed by several sources. Thus, for Bergoglio, homosexuals should not be allowed in seminaries. From "who am I to judge" to a now much more trance-like position, if only regarding the selection and formation of priests. The issue has been debated for many years, and already an instruction from the Vatican's dicastery for the Clergy in 2005 - under Benedict XVI - confirmed in 2016 when it was Pope Francis, stipulated that "the Church, while deeply respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the Seminary and to Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture." The Italian bishops, for their part, at their last assembly in Assisi had debated the possibility of more nuanced restrictions, feeling encouraged precisely by Bergoglio's past openings on the issue of homosexuality.
Although amid much contestation, an amendment had thus been approved that merely distinguished between "acts" and "tendencies," reiterating the obligation of celibacy for all seminarians, homosexual and heterosexual, and thus opening the door of seminaries to gay candidates for the priesthood committed, however, to the option of celibacy.
But in the hour-and-a-half-long discussion with the prelates, in fact the Pope barred the way: so respect, yes, for the gay person knocking at the seminary doors, but placing firm stakes on access to prevent the homosexual who chooses the priesthood from ending up leading a double life, with all the negative consequences of the case. And to reinforce his opinion and be clear even with a joke, Francis would explicitly recriminate about the excess of "faggotry" in certain Italian seminaries
