Pope ‘met and thanked’ Kim Davis during recent US visit
By Will Stroude
From a Miss America contestant to a former gay friend, plenty of people have been quick to speak out against Kim Davis’s breed of ignorant homophobia, but it’s now emerged that the anti-gay marriage clerk was given the Pope’s own seal of approval during his recent visit to the US.
The Vatican has refused to deny claims that Pope Francis met and “thanked” the Kentucky county clerk, who was locked up after violating a federal court order compelling her not to discriminate when issuing marriage licenses last month. Davis’s lawyer, Matt Stavers, told CBS News that Davis and her husband had been invited to meet the Pope in the wake of the media firestorm surrounding her story.
During the 15-minute private meeting with Davis at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, Pope Francis “thanked her for her courage” and told her to “stay strong,” Mr Stavers said.
The Pope had previously been asked during his visit about his thoughts on officials refusing to carry out their elected duty because of their religious beliefs, telling reporters on his flight back to Rome that conscientious objection was a “human right”.
“It is a right. And if a person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right,” he said.
Vatican spokesman Frederico Lombardi said that he “does not deny” that a meeting between Pope Francis and religiously-motivated homophobia’s new pin-up girl took place, and said he wouldn’t be making a further comment.
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