Book says gays in clergy worry pope

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has been quoted in a soon-to-be published book as saying that having gays in the clergy “is something that worries me” and remarking that some societies are considering homosexuality a “fashionable” lifestyle.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera’s website Saturday ran excerpts of the book in the form of an interview that Francis gave about religious vocations. Francis was quoted as describing homosexuality within the walls of seminaries, convents and other religious places where clergy members live as “a very serious question.”

“In our societies, it even seems homosexuality is fashionable. And this mentality, in some way, also influences the life of the church,” Francis was quoted as telling his interviewer, a Spanish-born missionary priest, Fernando Prado.

The book, based on four hours of conversations the two had in August at the Vatican, will be published in 10 languages this week. Its Spanish title is La Fuerza de la Vocacion or The Strength of Vocation.

Separately, the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Francis in the book as commenting on a clergyman who had told him that having gays in Catholic religious housing “isn’t so grave” because it’s “only an expression of affection.” That reasoning “is in error,” Francis said. “In consecrated life and priestly life, there is no place for this kind of affection.”

Still, Francis, as he has in the past, stressed that gay Catholics contribute to the life of the church. He said the church must always remember that “they are persons who will live in the service of the church, of the Christian community, of the people of God. Let’s never forget this perspective.”