VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican on Friday distanced Pope Francis from Kim Davis, saying the Kentucky clerk at the center of the U.S. gay marriage debate was one of dozens of people the pope greeted as he left Washington and that their encounter "should not be considered a form of support of her position."
The Vatican revealed that the "only real audience" Francis had in Washington was with a former student and his family, an openly gay Argentine who met the pope with his longtime partner and some friends.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, sought to give the Vatican's take of events in a statement early Friday, saying Francis had met with "several dozen" people at the Vatican's embassy before leaving Washington for New York.
Davis was among them and had a "brief meeting," he said. Lombardi said such meetings are common during papal trips and are due to the pope's "kindness and availability."
"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. "The only real audience granted by the pope at the nunciature was with one of his former students and his family."
The man, Yayo Grassi, was later identified by The New York Times and CNN as an openly gay Argentine caterer who lives in Washington. In a video posted online, Grassi is shown entering the Vatican's embassy, embracing his former teacher and introducing Francis to his longtime partner, whom Francis recognized from a previous meeting, as well as an elderly Argentine woman and a few friends from Asia.
Lombardi later confirmed that Grassi had "asked to present his mother and several friends to the pope during the pope's stay in Washington."
It wasn't immediately clear whether Grassi's mother was in the audience; Grassi introduced the elderly woman named Salome as "an Argentine friend." The Vatican couldn't immediately explain the discrepancy.
Grassi declined to be interviewed Friday, citing a dinner he was catering.
An audience is different from a meeting, in that it is a planned, somewhat formal affair. Popes have audiences with heads of state; they have meetings and greeting sessions with benefactors or other VIPs. Lombardi stressed Grassi's encounter as the only "real audience" in Washington, suggesting that Francis wanted to emphasize it over Davis' "brief meeting" along with several dozen other people.
Earlier this week, Davis said the pope met with her and her husband and thanked her for her courage and encouraged her to "stay strong."
"Just knowing that the pope is on track with what we're doing and agreeing, you know, it kind of validates everything," she told ABC.
The Vatican statement made clear the pope intended no such validation.
However, Davis' lawyer, Mat Staver, said the Vatican arranged the meeting as an affirmation of her right to be a conscientious objector.
"We wouldn't expect the pope to weigh in on the particulars of any case," Staver said Friday. "Rather, the meeting was a pastoral meeting to encourage Kim Davis in which Pope Francis thanked her for her courage and told her to 'stay strong.'"
Davis' lawyers said late Friday that the Vatican nuncio in Washington, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, had a hand in arranging the invitation.
"The private meeting request was unsolicited and facilitated by Vatican officials," the statement from Liberty Counsel said.
Staver said Vatican security picked up Davis and her husband from their hotel and told her to change her hairdo so she wouldn't be recognized.
Staver disputed a Vatican spokesman's assertion that the pope only met Davis in a receiving line. He said the couple were in a separate room with Francis and Vatican security and personnel and that no member of the general public was present.
Lombardi declined to say who invited Davis or what the pope knew of her case.
The Rev. Thomas Rosica, an assistant to Lombardi, said the pope would have been given a list of people who were invited to bid him farewell as he departed Washington, but he was unaware of the details of the Kentucky clerk's case or any possible implications of the meeting.
"I don't think it's a matter of being tricked as of being fully aware of the situation and its complexities," he said. He said Davis' supporters had "overblown" the encounter.
Information for this article was contributed by Bernard McGhee of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/03/2015