Him, Her, Us And The Truth

[[Updated]] October 2, 2015, 2PM

CNN is reporting Pope Francis held a private meeting with a same-sex couple in the United States the day before he met with Kim Davis, the county clerk who opposes same-sex marriage.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Yayo Grassi, who along with his partner met the Pope, declined to disclose details about the short visit, but said it was arranged personally by Pope Francis, who is a longtime friend.

Yayo Grassi was a former student of Pope Francis. As contained in the Vatican statement in the original article, “The only real audience granted by the Pope at the Nunciature was with one of his former students and his family.”

A video of the meeting shows Grassi and Francis greeting each other with a warm hug.

Speaking of videos … this just in:

The Washington Post has also just published an in depth and compelling interview with Yayo Grassi.

TGIF, and today, I mean that literally!

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Original Article: October 2, 2015, 11AM

When the news broke about the “secret meeting” between Pope Francis and Kim Davis, I smelled a rat. Ultimately, the Pontif did too.

When His Holiness addressed our lawmakers last Thursday, to ensure his message was heard clearly, he delivered it in English.

He spoke pointedly about climate change, immigration, the death penalty, Cuba, the Syrian refugee crisis, and wealth inequality.

Conservatives were besides themselves in grief that Pope Francis did not offer a nuclear rebuke of marriage equality and abortion.

He had a captive audience and said what was on his mind.

Then the news broke about his secret, prearranged meeting with Kim Davis.

At the least, it showed he showed he understood the separation of Church and State. At most, it meant he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing and every much the hater his predecessors were.

Around the same time, Kim Davis’s “legal team,” Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel, released this image of “100,000 Peruvians gathered in a Lima stadium to pray for Kim Davis.”

Until it was later debunked by ThinkProgress: the image was from a religious rally back in May of 2014.

Staver tried to weasel out of the lie by claiming the photo was an “honest mistake” while practically foaming at the mouth in glee over the bombshell announcement of the Pope’s private meeting with “their client.”

As Staver told fabricated to NPR, “It was just Pope Francis, Kim Davis, her husband Joe and other papal staff and security. No one else was in the room. Pope Francis came out. He held out his hands. He asked Kim Davis to pray for him. And she clasped his hands. He encouraged her. He said thank you for your courage, and he also said stay strong. And he also gave Kim and Joe Davis two rosaries.”

Every step of the Pope was captured and virtually every word. When the Vatican would only confirm there was a meeting with no other comment on the subject, the rat smell got stronger. Especially when it was revealed the meeting arranged by the very anti-marriage equality Archbishop Carlo Vigano.

And then, the truth finally came out in the form of a statement from Vatican City:

The brief meeting between Mrs. Kim Davis and Pope Francis at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, DC has continued to provoke comments and discussion.

In order to contribute to an objective understanding of what transpired I am able to clarify the following points: Pope Francis met with several dozen persons who had been invited by the Nunciature to greet him as he prepared to leave Washington for New York City. Such brief greetings occur on all papal visits and are due to the Pope’s characteristic kindness and availability. The only real audience granted by the Pope at the Nunciature was with one of his former students and his family.

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. ~Vatican spokesman Reverend Federico Lombardi

So what is Mat Staver saying now?

“Neither Kim Davis nor Liberty Counsel ever said the meeting was an endorsement of her legal case,” the law firm’s founder, Mat Staver, said in a press release. “That statement by Reueters [sic] citing a ‘senior Vatican official, who delined to be named,’ is false.”

So there you have it, guys, Mat Staver can neither tell the truth nor proofread.

Drops mic …

Tags: homophobia, Kim Davis, Liberty Council, marriage equality, Mat Staver, Micke Huckabee, The Pope