The leader of the Catholic church, typically lauded for his modern leanings, allegedly made a sexist remark about women just two days after dropping a homophobic f-slur behind closed doors in Rome, according to the Vatican news outlet Silere Non Possum. Pope Francis allegedly warned a group of young priests in a different closed-door meeting on Thursday against badmouthing parishioners and others—a reasonable piece of advice, if woefully ironic, as it came so soon after the f-slur reveal. Unfortunately, the pope also reinforced misogynistic stereotypes about women in his choice of words: “Gossip is a women’s thing,” he reportedly told the group of priests. “We wear the trousers, we have to say things.” Marco Perfetti, the director of Silere Non Possum, claimed to have audio recording of the pontiff making the cringe-worthy remarks and said multiple sources confirmed the pope’s comments. An apology may be forthcoming—on Tuesday, Francis had to apologize for using the Italian slur “frociaggine” during a discussion about possibly allowing gay men in seminaries.
