Pope Francis issued a rare apology on Tuesday after it was revealed that he had used a vulgar term for gay men when asked about the Catholic Church’s ban on homosexual priests entering seminaries.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a statement acknowledging the comments made by the 87-year-old pontiff, which were delivered during a meeting in a closed-door session on May 20 with Italian bishops.

Dagospia, an Italian news and gossip site, quoted unnamed bishops in reporting that Francis jokingly used the term “faggotness” — “frociaggine” in Italian — during the private meeting. Francis’ comments were also picked up on Monday by other Italian newspapers.

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“The pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who felt offended by the use of a term, as reported by others,” the Vatican statement read. “As [Pope Francis] has said on several occasions, ‘In the church there is room for everyone, everyone! No one is useless, no one is superfluous, there is room for everyone. Just as we are, everyone.’”

Bruni avoided an outright confirmation that Francis had used the term since it took place in a closed-door meeting, but he also didn’t deny that the pope had uttered the word.

In the meeting, the pope, according to Italian media reports, joked that “there is already an air of faggotness” in seminaries.

The pope’s comment came when he was asked about reaffirming the church’s ban on allowing gay men to enter seminaries and be ordained as priests.

The Vatican ruled in 2005 that the church would not allow the ordination of men who are gay or have “deep-seated” homosexual tendencies. Francis upheld that policy in 2016.

The document says that “it is necessary to state clearly that the church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called “gay culture.’”  

The Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that the Argentine pope, who speaks Italian as a second language, may not have been aware of how offensive the term was given the laughter of some of the bishops present at the meeting.

Vatican observer John Allen, in a column for Crux on Tuesday, added: “The root term in Italian is frocio, the most widely used pejorative term in Italian for a gay man, the etymology of which has been lost in time. (One theory traces it back to the 1527 sack of Rome, when feroci, or “ferocious,” invading troops supposedly raped men and women indistinctly, but nobody really knows.) The suffix -aggine denotes a quality or characteristic; for instance, Italians take the word stupido (which means what you think) and turn it into stupidaggini to convey acts of stupidity, i.e., ‘nonsense.’”

The comments came as a surprise given that the pope is largely seen as having progressive views when it comes to the LGBTQ community.

Last December, he formally approved allowing priests to bless couples in “irregular couples” — including gay couples — as long as it doesn’t resemble a marriage ceremony.

New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ Catholics, welcomed Francis’ apology and said it confirmed that the “use of the slur was a careless colloquialism.”

However, Francis DeBernardo, who heads the group, questioned the clergy ban.

“Without a clarification, [the pope’s] words will be interpreted as a blanket ban on accepting any gay man to a seminary,” he said.

Clemente Lisi is the executive editor of Religion Unplugged. He previously served as deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and a longtime reporter at The New York Post. Follow him on X @ClementeLisi.