Vatican stalls on accrediting openly Gay French Diplomat, while France defends the Appointment! According to Huffington Post, an openly gay French diplomat who was nominated by the French Council of Ministers as Ambassador to the Vatican since January, 2015 has not been confirmed, resulting in speculation the Pope is rejecting his appointment. Laurent Stefanini, 55 was nominated as the new French Ambassador to the Vatican State but an official word of accreditation is yet to be received.
According to the Guardian, Laurent is a distinguished diplomat who is currently a senior diplomat and Head of Protocol in President Francios Hollande’s government. The French paper Le Monde reported that he is not new to the Holy City and was the second most senior French diplomat in the Vatican from 2001 – 2005. The pope’s position may be contradictory on the issue of inclusion of gays and during a returning trip from Brazil in 2013, the pope was quizzed on this subject and the Pontiff responded with the word
“If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”
The statement has powerful connotations and was widely reported by the media to mean that the Vatican has finally reformed some of its most hard core conservative stance. While on his trip to the Philippines in January 2015, the Pope however obliquely opposed gay marriage with the following euphemistic statement.
“The family is threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life. These realities are increasingly under attack from powerful forces, which threaten to disfigure God’s plan for creation.”
