The French government is holding to its decision to appoint an openly gay Catholic man as its ambassador to the Vatican in the face of pressure from the Catholic head office to withdraw him. Laurent Stefanini While the Vatican has not publicly shunned highly-experienced and well-regarded diplomat Laurent Stefanini since the French nominated him to the post, the acceptance of a country's candidate is usually a formality within Vatican hierarchy. The delay of over a month now is said by political observers to indicate that the appointment has been rejected by the Vatican and that the French are not backing down. The Vatican is known to be extremely unhappy with the French adjustments to abortion legislation and their sanctioning of same-sex marriages. The Vatican's distaste for a gay man in what is one of their oldest and most revered diplomatic relationships comes in spite of Pope Francis's inference recently that he does not judge homosexuals differently from other people.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 19th April 2015 - 9:38pm