The Vatican released a statement Friday that said the pontiff’s encounter with her was part of a series of other meetings with countless other people and shouldn’t be interpreted as an endorsement.
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Rosica said Lombardi had issued the statement after meeting with the pope Friday morning, and added that he doubted Davis had spent 15 minutes in a private meeting with Francis at the Vatican’s embassy in Washington.
He was referring to the backlash after Pope Benedict XVI, Francis’ predecessor, gave a speech in Regensburg, Germany, that appeared to denigrate Islam.
“He knows about me being gay and he has a lot of respect for me being gay and Iwan being my partner”, Grassi said.
“I’m not sure that they realized how significant it would be”, he told reporters.
“He came to the class and immediately commanded authority but in such a nice and gentle way, and we knew that we were in front of a great teacher”, said Grassi, who had Francis as a teacher for two years in high school, from 1964 to 1965, at Inmaculada Concepcion in Santa Fe, Argentina. Grassi, who said he is an atheist, moved to the United States in 1978 and runs a catering business in Washington. Once he became Pope Francis, Grassi visited the Vatican and scheduled a visit during the United States tour, but thought his friend might be too busy to meet with him. He says the pope has long known that he’s gay but has never condemned him.
“I remember reading excerpts from the press saying that Cardinal Bergoglio had said… things that were extremely negative”. Rosica suggested that “the meeting may have been manipulated by her and her lawyer”, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Grassi said the meeting was purely personal. “He is first and foremost a pastor who is willing to encounter and engage anyone”, the group’s executive director, Christopher Hale, said in a statement.
While not changing church teaching, which considers same-sex relationships sinful, Pope Francis has often emphasized mercy over judgment.
“I don’t think anyone was willfully trying to trick the pope, and at the same time nor was the pope briefed properly on who was he meeting”. And Francis has show little inclination to adjust church doctrine on sexuality.
Lombardi added, “Such brief greetings occur on all papal visits and are due to the pope’s characteristic kindness and availability”. Many advocates of same-sex marriage were upset by news of the meeting.
The Holy Father welcomed both men and their friends warmly, embracing Grassi and his partner.
Headlines have been circling the past few days after Robert Moynihan, editor of the publication Inside the Vatican, broke the news about the meeting September 29. “We did not talk about gay marriage”. “And to hear this from you is so disappointing”. That former student was Grassi.
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Davis has said her beliefs as an Apostolic Christian prevent her from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
