Pope Francis Sides With 'Conscientious Objectors' Like Kim Davis in Gay Marriage Debate

It appears that Pope Francis was not swayed by the LGBT activists and liberal nun the president indecorously invited to attend his speech at the White House last week. Without referring to her by name, the pope took Kentucky clerk Kim Davis’ side in the national debate about the rights of individuals who refuse to abide by gay marriage laws due to conscientious objections.

Speaking to reporters as he returned home from his 10-day trip to the United States and Cuba, Pope Francis said government workers have a “human right” to refuse to discharge duties such as issuing marriage licenses to homosexuals if they believe it violates their conscience.

Via the New York Post:

On the flight back to Rome, he was asked if he supported individuals, including government officials, who refuse to abide by some laws, such as issuing marriage licenses to gays.

“Conscientious objection must enter into every juridical structure because it is a right,” Francis said.

Earlier this month, a county official in Kentucky, Kim Davis, went to jail because she refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple following a Supreme Court decision to make homosexual marriage legal.

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“I can’t have in mind all cases that can exist about conscientious objection but, yes, I can say that conscientious objection is a right that is a part of every human right,” he said, speaking in Italian.

“And if someone does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right,” he added.

Francis said conscientious objection had to be respected in legal structures. “Otherwise we would end up in a situation where we select what is a right, saying: ‘This right has merit, this one does not.’”

Pope Francis didn’t seem to be concerned about the prospect of his “star” falling as a result of his politically incorrect take on gay marriage.

When a reporter asked him if being a star in the United States was good for the church, he answered:

[T]he media uses this term, but there is another truth — how many stars have we seen go out and fall. It is a fleeting thing. Instead being a “servant of the servants of God” does not pass.