The Bishop of Salamanca (Spain), Bishop José Luis Retana, assured that “it cannot be said that the seminaries are full of homosexuals,” in reference to Pope Francis’ recent statements about the admission of gays as candidates for the priesthood.
In statements to the Spanish newspaper The Salamanca Gazette published this May 29, Bishop Retana commented that what the Holy Father said would have been a “spontaneity” that could “play tricks on him.” “I believe that he cannot make the statement as he has made it,” he added.
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“The fact that a person who takes refuge in his homosexuality can enter a seminary can happen. In my 15 years as rector of the seminary it has only happened to one person,” continued the Bishop of Salamanca.
However, he continued, that “is not usual.” “It cannot be said that the seminaries are full of homosexuals, at least I cannot affirm that this is the case,” remarked the Spanish prelate.
What did Pope Francis say about homosexuals and their admission to the priesthood?
On May 20, the Pope met with the bishops of Italy within the framework of the inauguration of their general assembly, in which he asked the prelates not to ordain priests or admit homosexuals to the seminary, as already established by the Instruction of 2005 of the Congregation – today the Dicastery – for the Doctrine of the Faith.
At the meeting, Pope Francis reportedly said that “there is already too much faggot in certain seminaries,” in response to one of the bishops who asked him how to proceed if an “avowedly homosexual” man requests to enter the seminary.
Pope Francis apologizes for using “homophobic terms”
On May 28, the Vatican Press Office issued a statement stating that the Holy Father “never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms.”
In addition, he noted that the Pontiff “extends his apologies to those who have felt offended by the use of a term, referred to by others.”
According to the Vatican statement, Pope Francis would not have been aware of the derogatory connotation of the term “faggot” (frociaggine in Italian).
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.