Fr. Martin posted on June 12 that he met with the pope for an hour.
“With his permission to share this, the Holy Father said he has known many good, holy and celibate seminarians and priests with homosexual tendencies,” Fr. Martin wrote:
Once again, he confirmed my ministry with LGBTQ people and showed his openness and love for the LGBTQ community. It was also a great joy to receive his blessing on the 25th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood.
Fr. Martin’s meeting with Francis comes one day after the pope reportedly used a deprecating Italian slur to refer to homosexuals during a meeting with 200 priests.
Several weeks earlier, the pope reportedly used the same slur during a meeting with the Italian Bishops’ Conference.
In both instances, the pope used the controversial word while expressing his opposition to homosexuals joining the Catholic priesthood.
On May 27, the Vatican issued a statement apologizing for the offense the pope caused.
“The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who felt offended by the use of a term, reported by others,” read the statement from the director of the Holy See Press Office Matteo Bruni.
After Francis used the deprecating term the second time, CatholicVote reported:
Reuters this week questioned the Vatican about Francis’ repeated use of the controversial word.
The Vatican press office responded to the publication by making “reference to a statement it had issued regarding Tuesday’s meeting with the priests, in which the pope reiterated the need to welcome gay people into the Church and the need for caution regarding them becoming seminarians.”