In an effort to defuse the controversy, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Davis was one of the “several dozen” individuals invited by the Vatican ambassador to meet with the pope during his trip to the USA capital.
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Rosica said Lombardi had issued the statement after meeting with the pope Friday morning, and added that he doubted Davis had spent 15 minutes in a private meeting with Francis at the Vatican’s embassy in Washington. It said such meetings are “due to the Pope’s characteristic kindness and availability”.
“It is heartening news that Pope Francis met privately with his friend and former student, Yayo Grassi, and his partner of 19 years, Iwan”, said HRC President Chad Griffin.
Before meeting with anti-gay county clerk Kim Davis, Pope Francis made another secretive visit.
Christian conservative Bryan Fischer on Friday claimed that the bullies in the “Gay Gestapo” have intimidated Pope Francis into distancing himself from Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis.
The apparently informal nature of the encounter had not kept Davis from interpreting the invitation as a full papal endorsement last week.
Compare that to Davis’s account of the meeting, during which she said Francis told her to “stay strong”.
He said the pope had long known he was gay but never condemned his sexual orientation or his same sex relationship.
“Just knowing that the pope is on track with what we’re doing, and agreeing, you know, kind of validates everything”, Davis told ABC News. A video taken during the meeting shows the men greeting each other with a warm hug.
Grassi initially wasn’t sure his former teacher would have time for a visit; the three-city USA trip had a full schedule.
“[There was] no one but she, her husband and the pope and one of his personnel….”
A senior Vatican official, who declined to be named, said there was a “sense of regret” within the Holy See over the encounter, which sparked widespread debate in the United States, overshadowing nearly all other aspects of the pope’s visit. Speaking mostly in Spanish, Francis greeted each of the people in the room and shared a blessing.
Pope Francis has won praise for shifting the focus of the Catholic church’s approach to homosexuality away from condemnation to a more understanding approach encapsulated by a famous 2013 remark in which he said of gays: “Who am I to judge them?”
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“I don’t think he knew the details, the full biographies of each person, except for the names of the people there”, Rosica said. Francis has emphasized that he strongly believes in conscientious objection as a human right, a position he reaffirmed on his plane ride home.
