Pope Francis apologizes over use of gay slur, Vatican says
WARNING: This story contains vulgar language.
Pope Francis, widely quoted as having used a highly derogatory word to describe the 2SLGBTQ+ community, did not intend to use homophobic language and apologizes to anyone offended by it, the Vatican said on Tuesday.
It is extremely rare for a pope to issue a public apology.
“The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he apologizes to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others,” Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said in an emailed statement.
Italian media had reported on Monday that Francis used the Italian term frociaggine, roughly translating as “faggotness” or “faggotry,” as he told Italian bishops he remained opposed to admitting gay people into the priesthood.
Italian political gossip website Dagospia was the first to report the alleged incident, said to have happened on May 20, when the pontiff met Italian bishops behind closed doors.
Bruni said Francis was “aware” of the reports. The Vatican spokesperson reiterated that the Pope remained committed to a welcoming church for all, where “nobody is useless, nobody is superfluous, [where] there is room for everyone.”
His reported comments caused shock and consternation, even among his supporters.
Vito Mancuso, an Italian theologian and former priest, told the daily La Stampa that Francis’s language was “despicable and surprising because it blatantly jars” with his previous messages on LGBTQ issues.
Andrea Rubera, the spokesperson for the Italian Christian LGBTQ+ association Paths of Hope, says while he knows community members are disappointed over Pope Francis’s use of a homophobic slur, he firmly believes the incident should not drive a wedge between them and the church.
Francis, 87, has been credited with making substantial overtures toward the 2SLGBTQ+ community during his 11-year papacy.
In 2013, at the start of his papacy, he famously said: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge?” Last year, he allowed priests to bless members of same-sex couples, triggering substantial conservative backlash.
Back in 2018, Francis admitted making “grave mistakes” in the handling of a sexual abuse crisis in Chile, where he initially dismissed as slander accusations against a bishop suspected of protecting a predator priest.
“I apologize to all those I have offended and I hope to be able to do it personally in the coming weeks, in the meetings I will have [with victims],” he wrote in a letter to Chilean bishops.
Published at Tue, 28 May 2024 14:06:46 +0000
Israeli troops push forward in Rafah, denying that more shelling killed 21 people
Israel’s military denied striking a tent camp west of the city of Rafah on Tuesday after Gaza health authorities said Israeli tank shelling had killed at least 21 people there, in what Israel has designated a civilian evacuation zone.
Two days after an Israeli airstrike on another camp stirred global condemnation, Gaza emergency services said four tank shells hit a cluster of tents in Al-Mawasi, a coastal strip that Israel had advised civilians in Rafah to move to for safety.
At least 12 of the dead were women, according to Gaza medical officials.
But Israel’s military later said in a statement: “Contrary to the reports from the last few hours, the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] did not strike in the Humanitarian Area in Al-Mawasi.”
Tuesday’s incident in Al-Mawasi occurred in an area designated by Israel as an expanded humanitarian zone. Israel had urged Palestinian civilians in Rafah, including around one million displaced by the almost eight-month-old war, to go there when it launched its incursion in early May.
‘I don’t know where my brother is or where my sister is, I don’t know anything,’ a man said Tuesday in Al-Mawasi, a coastal area west of the city of Rafah that Israel had advised civilians to move to for safety. Officials in Gaza said as many as 21 people were killed in Al-Mawasi after Israeli tank shells hit a cluster of tents; the IDF said it ‘did not strike in the humanitarian area.’
In central Rafah, tanks and armoured vehicles mounted with machine guns were spotted near Al-Awda mosque, a city landmark, witnesses told Reuters. The Israeli military said its forces continued to operate in the Rafah area, without commenting on reported advances into the city centre.
International community on edge
International unease over Israel’s three-week-old Rafah offensive has turned to outrage after an attack on Sunday set off a blaze in a tent camp in a western district of the city, killing at least 45 people.
Israel said it had targeted two senior Hamas operatives and had not intended to cause civilian casualties.
Global leaders voiced horror at the fire in a designated “humanitarian zone” of Rafah where families uprooted by fighting elsewhere had sought shelter, and urged the implementation of a World Court order last week for a halt to Israel’s assault.
The Israeli military said it was investigating the possibility that munitions stored near a compound targeted by Sunday’s airstrike may have ignited and touched off the blaze.
Families from across Gaza fled to Rafah after being told by Israeli forces to move south. After a deadly strike over the weekend, some are asking if they’ll ever find safety again.
Residents said Rafah’s Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood, the scene of Sunday’s night-time strike in which tents and shelters were set ablaze as families settled down to sleep, was still being bombarded.
“Tank shells are falling everywhere in Tel Al-Sultan. Many families have fled their houses in western Rafah under fire throughout the night,” one resident told Reuters via a chat app.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday added his voice to the chorus of condemnation of Sunday’s strike and again urged Israel to allow “the immediate, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance to those in need.”
In a further blow to aid efforts, a part of the U.S. military’s pier off Gaza’s coast has broken off, probably due to bad weather, rendering it temporarily inoperable, two U.S. officials said. The United Nations has transported 137 trucks of aid from the pier since it began operations two weeks ago.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said a portion of the pier had separated and that the pier would be towed over the next 48 hours to Ashdod port in Israel for repairs.
Singh added the pier would take over a week to repair and then returned to its place off the coast of Gaza.
Allies push for ceasefire
Spain, Norway and Ireland said they hoped their decision to recognize a Palestinian state would speed up efforts toward securing a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas militants, which has reduced much of the densely populated territory to rubble.
Egypt is again trying in tandem with Qatar and the U.S. to revive talks on a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas, but efforts have been hampered by Israel’s assault on Rafah, Cairo’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News TV channel said on Tuesday, citing a senior official.
Around one million people — many repeatedly uprooted by shifting waves of the war — have fled the Israeli offensive in Rafah since early May, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reported Tuesday.
An Israeli airstrike and its aftermath have killed dozens of innocent Palestinians sheltering in tents in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a mistake, while international leaders condemned it.
Israeli tanks, gun battles in Rafah
Israel seized control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt three weeks ago. Its tanks then entered some eastern districts of the city but had previously not rumbled into the centre in full force.
On Tuesday, witnesses also reported gun battles between Israeli troops and Hamas-led fighters in the area of the Zurub hilltop in western Rafah.
Witnesses in central Rafah said the Israeli military appeared to have brought in remote-operated armoured vehicles and there was no immediate sign of personnel in or around them. An Israeli military spokesperson had no immediate comment.
The Israeli military also said it operated overnight along the Philadelphi Corridor that separates Gaza from Egypt and troops were engaged in close-quarter combat, locating tunnel shafts, weapons and militant infrastructure.
More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, Gaza’s health ministry says. Israel launched its air and ground war after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel says it wants to root out the last major intact formations of Hamas fighters hunkered down in Rafah and rescue hostages it says are being held in the area.
Published at Tue, 28 May 2024 13:05:18 +0000