Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who defied a federal court order to issue same-sex marriage licenses and was jailed, said she met secretly with Pope Francis while he was in Washington during his visit to the United States.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, didn't deny the encounter took place but said on Wednesday in Rome he had no comment on the topic, reported The Associated Press.
Davis and her husband met privately with Pope Francis last Thursday afternoon at the Vatican Embassy in Washington for less than 15 minutes, said her lawyer, Mat Staver.
Davis, an Apostolic Christian, spent five days in jail earlier this month for defying a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In a telephone interview late Tuesday, Staver would not say who initiated the meeting with the pope or how it came to be, though he did say that Vatican officials had inquired about Davis' situation while she was in jail. He declined to name them.
Davis was in Washington for the Values Voter Summit, where the Family Research Council, which opposes same-sex marriage, presented her with an award for defying the federal judge.
Pope Francis did not focus on the divisive debate over same-sex marriage during his visit last week. As he left the country, he told reporters who inquired that he did not know Davis' case in detail, but he defended 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," Francis said.
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