While Pope Francis has earned the reputation of being down-to-earth, salty language is not normally part of his vocabulary. But while delivering his weekly sermon from the Vatican, the pope suffered a slip-of-the-tongue as he spoke in Italian.

According to The Daily Mail report, the Argentinian native was attempting to use the Italian word "caso" which mean example. Instead, he said "cazzo" which is the F-word in Italian. The pope quickly realized his error, corrected himself and continued without comment. But by then, social media channels were overflowing with comments about the pope's unfortunate choice of words.

Many of those commenting on social media defended the pope, saying it is common for Spanish-speaking people to mix up those two words in Italian.

The Vatican had no comment on the matter.

Featured

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney — pictured during a hearing Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 — has cleared the way for Georgia's State Election Board to obtain Fulton ballots and other documents from the 2020 election. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC