What does ‘frociaggine’ mean? The Pope’s reported gay slur translated and explained
The Pope allegedly made the comment during a closed-door discussion. (Getty)
What does “frociaggine” mean? It’s the gay slur which Pope Francis allegedly used during a meeting with bishops about allowing gay men to become priests, and again just a couple of weeks later.
Despite publicly supporting LGBTQ+ people in the past, he reportedly made the initial comment in Rome during discussions about whether out gay men who remain celibate should be admitted to Catholic seminaries, where priests are trained.
During the meeting, the Pontiff voiced his objection to the idea and was reported to say there was already too much “frociaggine” in seminaries, according to Italian tabloid Dagospia.
The Vatican apologised for The Pope’s alleged comment
After his alleged comments came to light, the Vatican apologised for Pope Francis’ behaviour. The Vatican said it was “aware of the articles” about the Bishop of Rome’s reported slur, explaining that he is a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community.
“As he stated on several occasions: ‘In the Church, there is room for everyone. Nobody is useless, nobody is superfluous, there is room for everyone. Just as we are, all of us,'” a Vatican spokesperson said.
“The pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he apologises to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others.”
The comments come amid the pontiff’s attempts to bridge the gap between the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ+ community, having accepted queer people from as early as the first month of his papacy in 2013, when he told reporters, if “someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?“
More recently, he described laws criminalising LGBTQ+ people as an “injustice”, adding: “Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God loves them. God accompanies them… condemning a person like this is a sin.”
What does ‘frociaggine’ mean?
The term “frociaggine”, which Pope Francis reportedly used to refer to gay men, is an f-pejorative in the Italian language.
The Italian word roughly translates to the derogatory term, “f****t”. While the word literally means a bundle of sticks and was used in the 19th Century to describe older women who gathered firewood, it has since taken on negative connotations to describe gay men.
It’s never okay to single out groups using derogatory language. Miz Cracker previously explained to PinkNews that “there is a hierarchy in hate language”.
“There are certain racial words that are so destructive, I wouldn’t dare compare their impact to the effect of words like f*g or homo.”
