Pope’s private meeting with anti-gay clerk sends wrong message

On that rainy evening in Rome, when a new pope stepped out onto St. Peter’s balcony, my first thought was: Who the hell is this guy?

The crib-sheet on potential pontiffs I was clutching contained no information about a Cardinal Bergoglio. But he had me at “Buena sera.” A kind man, a moral man and, oh my God, a Jesuit — the first elevated to the papal throne from the intellectual, often distrusted, Society of Jesuits, in the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history.

Pope Francis, whose signature assertion has been: “Who am I to judge?”

Since that day in March 2013, Papa Francis has hardly put a foot wrong — and, of course, papal infallibility would suggest he can’t ever be wrong in defining doctrines of faith.

But — I say this humbly — it was a misstep for the pope to meet even privately with notorious homophobe Kim Davis last week, during his rock-star visit to the U.S.

In Francis, those of us who try to harmonize faith with practice saw a leader of inclusivity, a person who, while cleaving to the fundamental tenets of Catholicism, as he must, was also a product of the modern world, with all its urgencies. So he could stand in front of Congress and urge politicians to “avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity’’ — admittedly, a more euphemistic reference to climate change than statements he’d made previously.

And he could admonish the nation hosting him for its slavish attachment to guns. “Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money. Money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood.”

He said not a word about abortion. Nor should he have. The subject is a non-starter in the Catholic Church. While the day may come when this Pope’s church permits divorced couples to receive communion — Francis has been adamant that remarried Catholics are not excommunicated and must be welcomed into the congregation — and where females might be ordained as priests (OK, that’s a long shot), there will never be a time when the Vatican can tolerate abortion.

I have the free will to disagree that abortion is murder.

The Church is deeply compromised — complicit — on matters of sexuality and sin and abuse. But I retain a (possibly naive) belief that the Vatican, in its wisdom, will ultimately accept the reality of homo- sexuality — the intrinsic imprinting of who and how you love — without imposing stiff-necked proscriptions on expressing that love by demanding celibacy: Love the sinner, condemn the sin.

There is no sin. And in enlightened societies, there is no obstruction to same-sex marriage.

Kim Davis isn’t Catholic, though her parents are. She is a thrice-divorced born-again Christian, a constituency whose members — not all, necessarily, but enough — look upon Catholics as heretical idolators and the Catholic Church a papist abomination. Specifically, Davis belongs to the Apostolic Pentecostal Church, a Protestant denomination that takes a literal view of the Bible.

Pope Francis doubtless has love for Davis because pontiffs don’t discriminate. He may admire the obstinacy of this heretofore obscure Kentucky county clerk, who defied a federal judge’s order to issue marriage licences to all couples — gay or straight. She spent five days in jail last month and was transformed into a martyr by some.

She’s not a martyr. She’s a bigoted zealot and a scofflaw.

Regrettably, Francis buffed Davis’ pseudo-martyr bona fides by secretly meeting with her last Thursday, a visitation that the Vatican initially refused to confirm.

“I was humbled to meet Pope Francis,” Davis said afterward. “Of all people, why me?”

Indeed, why her? After the pope had declined repeated pleas to meet with members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community

private audience with the Pope should not temper by even a shade the incorrigible intolerance in Davis’ heart. I fear this is what he has done — contributed significantly to the preposterous elevation of this woman to sainthood by right-wing Christians.

It was during a flight back to Rome from Brazil two years ago that Francis reaffirmed to reporters the Church’s position on homosexuality — homosexual acts were sinful but sexual orientation was not. “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”

The Pope explained, again, Catholic catechism on the issue. “It says they should not be marginalized because of this, but that they must be integrated into society.”

Integrated, yet ostracized and disenfranchised when they choose to formalize their unions by marriage — by the monolithic Roman Catholic Church, by a self-righteous little small-town clerk.

It’s a cross they should not be forced to bear.

And the halo many of us had invested on Pope Francis has slipped a fraction. Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.