The Vatican on Friday said that a
September 24 meeting between Pope Francis and Kim Davis “should not
be considered a form of support for her position.”
Davis is the elected clerk of Rowan
County, Kentucky who spent five days in jail for refusing to comply
with the Supreme Court's summer ruling striking down gay marriage
bans in all 50 states. Davis has said that issuing such licenses
would violate her conscience.
On Wednesday, Davis, an Apostolic
Christian, told ABC News that she had met with the pope: “He told
me before he left, he said, 'stay strong.' That was a great
encouragement. Just knowing that the pope is on track with what
we're doing, it kind of validates everything to have someone of that
stature.”
Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico
Lombardi, said in a statement that Francis met with “several dozen”
people at the Vatican's embassy in Washington and that such meetings
are part of any Vatican trip.
“The pope did not enter into the
details of the situation of Mrs. Davis and his meeting with her
should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of
its particular and complex aspects,” he said.
On his return trip to Rome, Francis
told reporters that government workers have a “human right” to
refuse to participate in a duty if they feel doing so would violate
their conscience, which seemed like an endorsement of Davis' actions.