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Pope's meeting with Kim Davis not an endorsement, Vatican says




By Ed Payne and Daniel Burke, CNN



Updated 1420 GMT (2120 HKT) October 2, 2015































Kim Davis: I met with Pope Francis 02:34


Story highlights
The meeting last week sparked controversy after Pope Francis' visit to the U.S.
The Vatican says her meeting with the Pope "should not be considered a form of support"



(CNN)The Vatican has clarified the details of the Pope's meeting with Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who spent six days in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the audience, which included several dozen other people, didn't amount to an endorsement.

"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," Lombardi said in a statement issued Friday morning.

The meeting, on September 24 in Washington, added a political twist to the Pope's first-ever trip to the United States, with conservatives cheering the meeting and liberals upset by it.
















Kim Davis: Pope told me to 'stay strong' 01:44

Davis' lawyer, Mat Staver, said the audience lasted 10 minutes and was just between the Pope, his client and her husband. He said pictures taken will be released at some point.

"I was humbled to meet Pope Francis. Of all people, why me?" Davis said in a statement.

"Pope Francis was kind, genuinely caring, and very personable. He even asked me to pray for him. Pope Francis thanked me for my courage and told me to 'stay strong.' "

Staver, who didn't attend the meeting, said the Pope hugged Davis and gave her and her husband each a rosary, which she in turn gave to her parents. Rosaries are common gifts from popes to visitors.

Davis' father and mother are lifelong Catholics. She is an Apostolic Christian after a religious conversion four and a half years ago.

Who is Kim Davis?
















Kim Davis' attorney describes meeting with Pope 02:58

Initially, the Vatican barely acknowledged the meeting.

"I don't deny that the meeting took place," said Lombardi. "But I have no comment to add."

Kim Davis: I've been called Hitler, hypocrite

The meeting added a partisan wrinkle to Pope Francis' trip last week.

While he strongly defended religious freedom in speeches at the White House, Congress and Philadelphia's Independence Mall, he avoided taking public stances on particular political issues.

Davis, meanwhile, personifies religious conservatives' concerns about the enforcement of nondiscrimination laws.






Kim Davis is no longer a Democrat

Gay and lesbian Catholics called the Pope's meeting with Davis "puzzling" and said it "throws a wet blanket" on his trip to the United States last week.

While in Washington last week, Francis also met with the Little Sisters of the Poor, nuns who are suing the Obama administration over the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate. That meeting, too, took place behind closed doors.

A federal judge ordered Davis to jail this month over her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the Kentucky county where she's clerk. Before being ordered to jail, Davis also refused to allow clerks in her office to issue licenses. She cited her biblical opposition to same-sex marriage.

Since her release, she has allowed the licenses to be issued but only with her name and title removed. Each license includes a statement saying it is issued "pursuant to a court order."

CNN's Livia Borghese, Nicola Ruotolo, Linh Tran and Kevin Conlon contributed to this report.