In late May, Pope Francis slipped up again after his first visit, using a vulgar and derogatory Italian term directed at gays. Gay men who want to become priests are advised to see a “psychologist”, days after a scandal forced him to apologize, Italian media reported.

When asked about vocations during a private meeting with 200 priests at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome, the 87-year-old Argentine pope repeated the word “Frosiagin.”

Second ticket within a month

“There is an icy atmosphere in the Vatican,” the pope said, according to Italian news agency Ansa. “Gays are good boys (…), they seek God. “But it is better to direct them to a good spiritual father, to a psychologist, than to admit them to the seminary,” said the Italian daily. Corriere della Sera.

This word belonging to the dialect of Rome is difficult to translate. It’s actually a derivative of “frosio”, an insult in Romanian that means “fagot” and is used to disparage a context with “foxes” or “darluses”.

In late May, Pope Francis had to apologize for using the term during a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops, with the Vatican assuring him that he “never intended to offend or express homophobic views”.