In case there was still any confusion, Pope Francis made the Church’s position on gay marriage abundantly clear during his trip to the United States.
Yesterday, CBS reported that the Kentucky clerk who went to jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples got to meet with Pope Francis during his visit to the U.S. The pope reportedly asked Kim Davis to pray for him, and gave her and her husband blessed rosaries.
During the plane ride home to Italy, on the other hand, the pope apparently blasted the left-wing, pro-gay marriage mayor of Rome.
According to Kim Davis’ attorney, Mat Staver, “the two met briefly last Thursday, September 24, at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C.”
Staver said Pope Francis spoke to Davis in English and asked her to pray for him. He said Davis, in return, asked the pope to pray for her. The pope told her to stay strong, according to her lawyer.
Staver said the pope also gave Kim and her husband rosaries he had blessed.
Photos of the meeting are in the possession of the Vatican, according to Staver.
Yesterday, Father Ciro Benedettini of the Holy See Press Office told CBS News that the Vatican neither confirmed nor denied the report.
Today, the Vatican did confirm that the meeting took place.
Via the Washington Post:
“I do not deny that the meeting took place, but I have no comments to add,” Rev. Manuel Dorantes, a spokesman for the Vatican, told The Washington Post on Wednesday.
***
The meeting with Davis was not the only private discussion the pope held with Americans involved in religious liberty cases. In Washington, Francis also met with the Little Sisters of the Poor — a visit that was intended as a sign of support for the nuns in their legal battle against a contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act.
The Vatican revealed that meeting at a U.S. news conference hours after it took place. The meeting with Davis was kept private until late Tuesday, days after Francis had left the country.
As mentioned above, Pope Francis had less than charitable things to say about the left-wing, pro-gay marriage mayor of Rome on the trip home to Italy.
Pope Francis raised eyebrows in Italy on Tuesday by slapping down the left-leaning mayor of Rome as someone who “pretends to be Catholic”.
The unforgiving assessment of Ignazio Marino — a man the Italian media love to hate — further heightened tensions between the pope and the mayor in the run-up to the start of the Holy Year of Mercy in December, with the Vatican fearful the Italian capital is ill-prepared for the millions of extra pilgrims.“He pretends to be Catholic, it came on him all of a sudden. It doesn’t happen like that,” Francis said.
The pope’s cutting comments on the politician — who observers say rubbed the pontiff up the wrong way with his vocal support of gay marriage and euthanasia — came as Francis returned from a barnstorming visit to the United States and Cuba.
Apparently Marino made an appearance “on the last leg of the papal tour,” which agitated the pontiff.
Asked on the flight home if the pope had invited Marino, Francis said, “I didn’t invite the mayor. Is that clear? I asked the organisers and they didn’t invite him either.”
Not exactly the sort of grandfatherly warmth and kindness we’ve come to expect from Il Papa, eh?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member