‘Persecuted’ Christian Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who went to jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, has gained a new fan: Pope Francis.
According to Davis’s attorney, Mat Staver, Davis – currently the religious right’s highest profile poster girl – managed to engineer a meeting with the pontiff when he visited the America.
Staver said the two met briefly last Thursday, September 24, at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, DC.
Staver said Pope Francis spoke to Davis in English and asked her to pray for him. He said Davis, in return, asked the Pope to pray for her. The Pope told her to stay strong, according to the lawyer.
Staver said the Pope also gave Kim and her husband rosaries he had blessed.
Photos of the meeting are in the possession of the Vatican, according to Staver.
Father Ciro Benedettini of the Holy See Press Office said:
The Vatican does not confirm nor deny this.
While on the flight home from his visit to America, Francis was asked about Davis’ case.
Francis said he didn’t know the case in detail, but he upheld conscientious objection as a human right.
It is a right. And if a person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right.
Meanwhile it’s reported here that Davis has switched her allegiance to the Republicans, having decided that the Democrats had thrown her under a bus.