ROME — A gay student in the Philippines publicly rebuked Pope Francis on Thursday, calling on the 87-year-old pontiff to stop using derogatory language against gay people.
“Please stop using offensive language against the LGBTQIA+ community. This causes immeasurable pain,” Jacques Lorenz Acevedo Rivera said during the panel. Discussion We discussed with university students the theme of “Building Bridges in the Asia-Pacific Region.”
“I myself have been ostracized and bullied for my bisexuality, my homosexuality, my identity and being the son of a single mother,” said Acevedo Rivera, who wore a rainbow gay pride sash during the broadcast.
As reported by Breitbart News, Pope Francis reportedly spoke out against excessive “homosexuality” (Phlosiagin) to speak at the Vatican twice, sparking a backlash from homosexual advocates.
Meeting privately with Italian bishops on May 20, Francis reiterated the church’s ban on admitting gays into priestly training courses, adding that there are already too many “gays” in some seminaries.
The bishops “destroyed all the fairies. [checche] “Anyone who has graduated from a seminary, even someone who has only studied half of what the Pope teaches,” the Pope added, demonstrating an impressive command of Italian slang.
Following heavy backlash over the pope’s comments, the Vatican’s press office quickly issued an apology on his behalf, insisting that “the Pope did not intend to use homophobic language or to offend anyone.”
But a few weeks later, Francis again denounced the “homosexual” atmosphere within the Vatican, repeating the very same words that had got him in trouble just a few days earlier.
At a meeting with priests at Salesian University in Rome, the Pope lamented the “homosexual atmosphere in the Vatican.” response When asked if he was worried about “gay culture” inside the Vatican.
The Pope reportedly said that while men with homosexual tendencies should be welcomed into the church, they should not be forced to attend seminaries to train for the priesthood.
Responding to the pope’s remarks, LGBTQ+ supporter Jesuit Father James Martin said on Twitter that he has known “hundreds” of gay priests in his life as a Jesuit and that the Church would be “immeasurably poorer” without them.
“In my 25 years as a priest and 40 years as a Jesuit, I have known hundreds of holy, devout, celibate gay priests,” Father Martin said. I have written About X: “They were my superiors, my teachers, my confessors, my mentors, my spiritual directors, my friends.”
The Jesuits are known for having a high proportion of gay members; one of Martin’s Jesuit brothers estimates that about 50 percent of Jesuit members are gay.
“About half of working adults under the age of 50 walk the line between being gay and not.” I have written Jesuit priest Paul Shaughnessy said in 2002 Weekly StandardTitled “Are the Jesuits Catholic?”
“The Jesuits’ FormatterThe Jesuit priests in charge of training them are also gay.”
