Pope allegedly insults gays

The Pope has allegedly used offensive language when talking about gay people.

Asked at a bishops’ conference in Rome about whether gay men who choose to be celibate should be considered for the priesthood, the tabloid website Dagospia reported that Pope Francis had allegedly said, in Italian, that there was already too much frociaggine in some sections of the Catholic Church.

The Italian word is used as a slur and roughly translates as f*g**try.

The meeting took place behind closed doors.

The story was later picked up by the Italian broadsheets La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera and other news agencies.

If true, this goes against what some have seen as the Pontiff’s softening of the Church’s attitude towards LGBTQ+ people.

Asked about gay people in the early years of his papacy, he famously said, “Who am I to judge?”

Last year he ruled that priests could bless same-sex couples.

In the same year he told the Associated Press that “being homosexual isn’t a crime”.

He also said that transgender people could be baptised into the Catholic faith.

The 87-year-old Pontiff’s first language is Spanish and an insider to the meeting claimed that the Pope was making a joke and wasn’t aware of the offensive nature of the Italian word.

The Vatican has declined to comment.