Encounter with clerk not a papal endorsement: Vatican
Francis’s ‘real audience’ was gay student, not Kim Davis, spokesman clarifies
VATICAN CITY— The Vatican on Friday distanced Pope Francis from Kim Davis, the focal point in the gay marriage debate in the U.S., saying she was one of dozens of people the Pope greeted in the U.S. and that their encounter “should not be considered a form of support of her position.”
After days of confusion, the Vatican issued a statement Friday clarifying the circumstances of Francis’s Sept. 24 encounter with Davis, a Kentucky county clerk who went to jail for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licences.
And in a new twist, the Vatican revealed that the “only real audience” Francis had in Washington was with a former student and his family, who later identified himself as Yayo Grassi, an openly gay Argentine who met the Pope with his longtime partner and some friends.
The revelations turned the table on the narrative of Davis’s encounter, making clear that Francis wanted another meeting to come to light: that of an old student and his “family,” who happens to be gay.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Francis met with “several dozen” people at the Vatican’s embassy in Washington just before leaving for New York. Lombardi said such meetings are normal on any Vatican trip and are due to the Pope’s “kindness and availability.”
And Lombardi said Davis’s “brief” meeting that afternoon was by no means a papal endorsement of her cause.
“The Pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs. Davis and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects,” Lombardi said.
“The only real audience granted by the Pope at the nunciature was with one of his former students and his family.”
Lombardi didn’t reveal who the student was, but the man subsequently came forward: In a video posted online, Grassi is shown entering the embassy, embracing his former teacher and introducing Francis to his partner, whom Francis recognized from a previous meeting, and a few friends from Asia.
A Vatican assistant spokesman confirmed that the former student was indeed Grassi.
An audience differs from a meeting in that it is a planned, somewhat formal affair. Popes have audiences with heads of state. They have meetings and greeting sessions with benefactors or Catholic VIPs. So the fact that Lombardi described Grassi’s encounter as the only “real audience” in Washington made clear that Francis wanted to emphasize that encounter over Davis’s “brief meeting” with several dozen other people invited to the embassy at the same time.
Davis, an Apostolic Christian, spent five days in jail for defying federal court orders to issue same-sex mar- riage licences after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide.
A judge ultimately freed Davis on the condition she not interfere with her deputies’ issuing the licenses. When Davis returned to work, she confiscated the marriage licences and replaced them with new ones saying they were issued not under the authority of the county clerk, but “pursuant to federal court order.”
Davis said this week that she and her husband met briefly with the Pope at the Vatican’s nunciature in Washington and that he encouraged her to “stay strong.”
“Just knowing that the Pope is on track with what we’re doing and agreeing, you know, it kind of validates everything,” she told ABC.
The Vatican statement made clear the Pope intended no such validation. However, Davis’s lawyer, Mat Staver, told The Associated Press that the Vatican initiated the meeting as an affirmation of her right to be a conscientious objector.
An assistant to Lombardi, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, said he believed the Pope was unaware of Davis or the implications of the meeting.