Pope Francis has been blasted as "homophobic" after reportedly using an offensive slur to describe Catholic seminaries and gay people.

Francis had seminaries, or priesthood colleges, were already too full of "frociaggine", a vulgar Italian term which roughly translates as "f**gotness", according to Italian outlets La Repubblica and the Corriere della Sera.

The Pontifex had reportedly told bishops in a closed-door meeting that gay people should not be allowed to become priests - implying both that the seminaries and their would-be students exhibited traits which the term describes.

The Pope is also alleged to have claimed trainee priests led a "double life" through presenting themselves as celibate while being secretly gay.

A statement from the Vatican said: "Pope Francis is aware of the articles recently published about a conversation, behind closed doors, with the bishops of the CEI [Italian Bishops Conference].

"As he stated on several occasions, 'In the Church there is room for everyone, for everyone! Nobody is useless, nobody is superfluous, there is room for everyone. Just as we are, all of us.'

"The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he apologises to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others."

A number of bishops reportedly told the Corriere della Sera that the offensive turn of phrase was down to the Pope's multilingual upbringing - an Argentinian born to Italian immigrant parents, Francis had been raised speaking Spanish and the Northern Italian dialect of Piedmontese.

The bishops reportedly suggested that due to this, Francis - born Jorge Mario Bergoglio - had not realised how "grave and offensive" his words would be in Italian.

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But Francis's words drew ire from across the political spectrum; in response, Italian MP and LGBT rights activist Alessandro Zan said: "There's not too much f**gotness - there are too many homophobes!"

While hard-right European Parliamentary candidate from Italy's Northern League party, Roberto Vannacci, jabbed: "And they called me a homophobe!"

More Italian gay rights activists, Papa per Scelta (Fathers for Choice), a gay couple with children, said: "We don't know whether to laugh or cry."

Contrary to this recent controversy, the 87-year-old Pontiff has been credited with leading the Roman Catholic Church toward taking a more welcoming approach towards the LGBT community.

In 2013, at the start of his papacy, he famously said: "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?".

And last year, Francis allowed priests to bless members of same-sex couples, triggering substantial backlash among conservative Catholics.

But despite these moves, this isn't the first time he's spoken about seminaries and seminarians in such tones.

In 2018, he delivered a similar message on gay seminarians - minus the reported swear word - when he told Italian bishops to carefully vet priesthood applicants and reject any suspected homosexuals.

In a 2005 document, released under Francis's late predecessor Benedict XVI, the Vatican said the Church could admit into the priesthood those who had clearly overcome homosexual tendencies for at least three years.

The document said practicing homosexuals and those with "deep-seated" gay tendencies and those who "support the so-called gay culture" should be barred.