The Vatican has been dragging its feet on the approval of France’s ambassador to the Holy See, raising suspicions that it has in effect rejected the nomination of Laurent Stéfanini because he is gay.
The Vatican declined to comment on speculation about the hold-up.
Stéfanini, a 55-year-old practicing Catholic, has been described as an exemplary candidate in the Italian press, and a man of “exceptional culture”. He serves as a senior diplomat and chief of protocol in the government of Francois Hollande, the French president.
His nomination was put forward in January but the Vatican has not responded to it, usually an indication that the potential ambassador has been rejected. Reports in both the French and Italian press suggested the decision was clearly connected to the fact that the nominee is gay.
The controversy could tarnish Pope Francis’s image as more tolerant than his predecessors on the issue of gay rights. In 2013, he responded “who am I to judge?” when asked by a reporter about the existence of a “gay lobby” within the Vatican, words that had been interpreted as a sign of some acceptance of gay people in a church that says homosexual acts are a sin.
But on a trip to the Philippines earlier this year, the Argentinean pontiff decried efforts to “redefine family” and the institution of marriage, comments that were seen as an attack on marriage equality for gay men and lesbians.
The appointment of Stéfanini was blessed by the archbishop of Paris, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, according to a report in Out. The French embassy to the Holy See declined to comment.
If Stéfanini has indeed been rejected because he is gay, it would not be the first time the Vatican has turned down a candidate for controversial reasons.
The Vatican dismissed reports in 2009 that it had rejected three possible US candidates for ambassador put forward by the Obama administration because they supported abortion rights. But there have been two occasions over the last 10 years in which the Vatican has objected to candidates – one from Argentina, who was divorced and lived with his new partner, and another from France who was openly gay an in a civil union with another man.
A Vatican source told the Catholic News Service in 2009: “For Catholic ambassadors, there is the question of their matrimonial situation. But outside of that, I don’t think there are other criteria.”
In most cases, ambassadors are floated to the Vatican before a formal nomination is made, at which point objections can be aired. It is unclear whether France had cleared the Stéfanini nomination beforehand.
