Pope Francis allegedly tells group of priests ‘gossip is a women’s thing’

Gossip is a “woman’s thing”, Pope Francis is alleged to have told a group of priests at a recent meeting in Rome.

The remark was said to have been made by the pontiff at a closed-door meeting just days after he apologised for reportedly using a homophobic slur.

The head of the Catholic Church, 87, is said to have advised the priests, ordained within the past 10 years, of “badmouthing” in parishes and congregations

“Gossip is a women’s thing,” he allegedly said. “We wear the trousers, we have to say things.”

His alleged comments were first reported by Silere Non Possum, a Catholic website critical of the pope, before being picked up by mainstream Italian newspapers and agencies.

A collaborator with Silere Non Possum told The Times that they had a recording of the meeting which they were prepared to released if the Vatican denied the comments had been made.

Francis has previously denounced gossip in the church, describing it as the devil’s work and a plague “worse than Covid” and “terrorism”.

In 2018 he told pilgrims in St Peter’s Square that gossip kills “because the tongue kills, like a knife”.

The Vatican has been contacted for comment.

The alleged remarks are potentially another highly embarrassing incident for Francis, who has been trying to boost the role of women in the church.

On Tuesday the Vatican issued a statement acknowledging the media storm sparked by his widely reported homophobic remark.

He was said to have made the comment while reaffirming the Catholic Church’s ban on gay priests.

“The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who were offended by the use of a term that was reported by others,” Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said.

The apology followed a closed-door meeting on 20 May at an Italian bishops’ conference in Rome, where one of the topics discussed was whether to allow celibate gay men to undergo training for priesthood at Catholic seminaries.

Francis was said to have spoken out against the idea.

He was reported in the Italian media as joking that there was already too much frociaggine in some seminaries - a highly offensive homophobic Italian slur.

The Italian bishops conference had recently approved a new document outlining training for Italian seminarians.

The document, which hasn’t been published pending a review by the Holy See, reportedly sought to open some wiggle room in the Vatican’s absolute ban on gay priests.

The Vatican ban was articulated in a 2005 document from the Congregation for Catholic Education, and later repeated in a subsequent document in 2016, which said the church cannot admit to seminaries or ordain men who “practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture”.

Italian is not Pope Francis’s mother tongue and the Argentine pope has made linguistic mistakes in the past that raised eyebrows.

His apology has been welcomed by a UK Catholic LGBT+ group.

Martin Pendergast, secretary of LGBT Catholics Westminster Pastoral Council, said: “Given the media frenzy that there has been around this, I think it is very significant that an apology has come so swiftly and he clearly recognised not just that he is sorry for those who might have been hurt but also that it was homophobic language.”