ROME — A gay Filipino student publicly rebuked Pope Francis on Thursday, urging the pontiff to stop using offensive language against the LGBTQ+ community.
Acebedo Rivera, a student who was wearing a rainbow sash during the broadcast, shared his own experiences of being bullied and ostracized due to his bisexuality and being a single-parent child.
The exchange came amid controversy surrounding the pope’s previous comments, in which he used the term “faggotry” to describe an atmosphere within the Vatican. The Holy See Press Office issued an apology on the pope’s behalf, stating that he never intended to offend or use homophobic language. However, the pope repeated the exact same language in a meeting with priests at Rome’s Salesian University, sparking further backlash.
Pro-LGBTQ+ Jesuit Father James Martin responded to the pope’s remarks, saying that he has known hundreds of gay priests throughout his life and that the Church would be poorer without them.
