https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/mar/03/pope-francis-swears-vatican-blessing-video
Here Jorge's "blessing" at the Vatican consisted of telling the audience to "f**k off".
.
I don't like defending this guy, but this is a little silly. I think there is a lot of misconception about Italian profanity.
First of all, the word he used doesn't have the same meaning as the F word at all; it's an anatomical term.
Secondly, the F word is a very strong obscenity in English, whereas the word that Frank used is much more mild. I was in a cafe in Italy once, in a small town in a conservative rural community, and the sweet little old lady who ran the place was talking to a customer and concluded her remarks by saying casually, "Eh, che cazzo." If you were to look that expression up in the dictionary, it would tell you that she had said, "WTF." So, either the dictionary is wrong, or little old ladies in Italy go around cursing even worse than hoodlums in America. I think the former is more likely.
Similarly, we laugh at how the English are shocked at the word "bloody". Yet if we went over there and used that word, it would seem completely innocent to us, but it would be highly offensive to them.
Of course we should avoid bad language, but it's nearly impossible to translate profanity from one language to another.
By the way, I'm going to flag this thread to bring it up next time Gladius Veritatis shows up on here and starts hurling obscenities at people, and other members try to ignore or even defend his behavior.
