Fr Sean Major-Campbell THERE IS an old saying, ‘Words and eggs are to be handled with care; for words once spoken and eggs once broken are not the easiest things to repair’. Words can cause harm even when the speaker did not have that intention. There is probably no reason to believe that Pope Francis intended harm to LGBTQ+ people when he said that seminaries are already full of “frociaggine”.

The term which in English presents as “faggotness” is understandably offensive. An ongoing concern to be engaged by faith-based organisations is anything that triggers and recalls the pain and suffering caused in faith-based spaces to people of LGBTQ+ identity. Sexual orientation and gender identity matters are not to be used for humour or weaponised.

Too many people from Church, mosque, synagogue, and other religious spaces have suffered from suicide due to the attendant pain resulting from being marginalised, condemned, and ridiculed, sometimes even from those who have sexually abused them but now hide behind the cloak of homophobia. Heteronormative platforms of patriarchy are systemic realities across religious traditions. It is therefore not easy to always refrain from serving the status quo .

Maybe if we are honest, most of us have at some time joined in some anti-LGBT sentiment in the quest to be with the crowd. Pope Francis, while responsible for his comment, is no less a victim of a systemic way of thinking that must be honoured from time to time. It is politically .