Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 10:25am

PopeWatch: Laurent Stefanini

 

 

 

VATICAN-POPE-AUDIENCE

 

Father Z brings us this interesting tidbit:

 

I have been saying for a couple years now that when liberals figure that out, they will turn on Francis.

I read this today at the Telegraph:

Pope Francis ‘refuses’ gay French ambassador

Pope Francis’ reputation as liberal takes a knock over reports that he rejected the nomination of a new French ambassador to the Vatican on the grounds that he was a homosexual

Pope Francis has reportedly barred the nomination of a close aide of President Francois Hollande as new French ambassador to the Vatican because he is gay.
The apparent rejection calls into question the pope’s reputation as holding more liberal views on homosexuality.
Laurent Stefanini, 54, a senior diplomat and Mr Hollande’s chief of protocol, was nominated in early January but the Vatican has maintained a stony silence over whether it accepts his credentials, officials in Paris said.
The usual time frame for their acceptance is a month and a half. After that, a prolonged silence after a nomination is normally interpreted as a rejection.
The Elysee said that the choice of Mr Stefanini to represent France at the Vatican resulted from “a wish by the president and a cabinet decision” and that the president regarded him as “one of our best diplomats.”
French media widely reported that Mr Stefanini has been blackballed due to his homosexuality.
Le Journal du Dimanche quoted a Vatican insider as saying that the rejection was “a decision taken by the pope himself.”
Liberation, the left-leaning daily, said that “the Vatican’s homophobia seriously tarnishes Pope Francis’ image as being (slightly) more open-minded that his predecessors on sexuality“.
France in 2007 nominated a gay ambassador to the Vatican who had a partner recognised under French law but the Holy See never responded to the nomination, despite lengthy attempts to secure him the post.

[…]

Read the rest there.

Go here to read the rest.  PopeWatch does not know how much to make of this, but it does seem as if Pope Francis can recognize a slap in the face and act accordingly.

 

While Laurent Stefanini is not an obvious gay lobbyist, his homosexuality is no secret and choosing him to represent France at the Holy See was considered by many to be a “provocation.” Even Manuel Valls, France’s socialist Prime Minister who recently said that the French Republic had been built “against religion” told President François Hollande that choosing Stefanini was going a bit too far.

Being a Christian does not require being a punching bag for enemies of the Faith.  If the Pope understands this, that is a very good thing indeed.

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Elizabeth Fitzmaurice
Elizabeth Fitzmaurice
Monday, April 13, AD 2015 4:24am

I almost can’t believe that Fr. Z makes something out of this gossip and speculation. Not too long ago, he very reluctantly shed his rose-colored glasses about this Pope; now they’re back on.

My thought is that the Pope is biding his time, waiting to see how he can accept the nomination unscathed. Pope Francis rejecting because of homosexuality? When pigs fly.

bill bannon
Monday, April 13, AD 2015 6:13am

Elizabeth’s comment is interesting….the Washington Times reported it….the NY Times didn’t. How about ambassadors or heads of state in second, third marriages or living together. It leads to a hundred ” how come this one’s ok but that one isn’t”. Next stage would be Italian papers outing who is gay in the papal employ and that could be many.
This can’t lead to simplicity.

Foxfier
Admin
Monday, April 13, AD 2015 1:15pm

Interesting to know about, but not enough information to draw a conclusion. Not like we can trust the papers to tell us the truth, let alone all of the relevant facts.

Tom D
Tom D
Monday, April 13, AD 2015 1:20pm

The answer is quite obvious. Pope Francis wants to accept homosexuals on his pastoral terms, and not on the world’s terms.

Clinton
Clinton
Monday, April 13, AD 2015 1:35pm

I can remember when Bill Clinton had to make a recess appointment of a gay
ambassador to Luxembourg because sending a gay ambassador to a Catholic
country was considered too controversial for a regular Senate confirmation
back in 1999. Joseph Hormel, the heir to the Hormel meats fortune and a
longtime contributor to gay and Democrat causes, was the ambassador in
question. Of course, almost twenty years later, Hormel and his fellow travelers
have succeeded in normalizing such a situation so that this administration
has appointed openly gay ambassadors even to Muslim nations** without
any similar controversy.

France’s attempt to send an openly gay ambassador to the Holy See is just
such an attempt to normalize homosexual behavior. Pope Francis did well
to refuse to be manipulated, and France is waaay out of line to comment
or speculate on a refusal which is, after all, the Holy See’s prerogative.
_____________
** I’m referring to Ambassador Stevens, our ambassador to Lybia who was
murdered by terrorists, along with three other Americans, at Bengazi.

Paul W Primavera
Paul W Primavera
Monday, April 13, AD 2015 5:27pm

Pope Francis did correctly this time and deserves to be recognized for having made a correct decision.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Monday, April 13, AD 2015 5:43pm

France is a nation that has persisted in stupidity like few others since 1789.

The pathetic Prime Minister who said that the French Republic was built “against religion” seems hell bent to know God far too late.

CAM
CAM
Monday, April 13, AD 2015 11:42pm

In light of the revelation that Ambassador Stevens was a homosexual, I now recall that there was a suggestion on the news that his remains were sodomized by his murderers or the mob. If that happened a message was definitely being sent by the muslims.
In hindsight Hormel should have been sent as an envoy to France instead of Luxembourg.

CAM
CAM
Monday, April 13, AD 2015 11:56pm

Bravo to Pope Francis for rejecting the proposed envoy from France.

Tom D
Tom D
Wednesday, April 15, AD 2015 10:06pm

Hey, LifesiteNews says the whole brouhaha is a manufactured attempt to attack the Church:
1) Stefanini is an adult convert to Catholicism
2) He is a regular Sunday Mass attendee
3) He has never spoken about his sexuality in public, or on homosexual issues at all
4) His acceptance by the Vatican appears to be delayed due to Curia personnel changes
5) He is reputed to be widely respected among the Curia
6) The person accused of blackballing him denies doing so “I nearly fell out of my chair after reading it” and claims to not have such influence in any case
LifeSiteNews claims the whole thing is a setup to embarrass both the French government and the Vatican.
See https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/frances-proposed-vatican-envoy-is-a-devout-catholic-and-may-not-even-be-gay

trackback
Wednesday, April 15, AD 2015 11:02pm

[…] The Register Ten Things Every Catholic Should Know About Marriage – Fr. Dwight Longenecker Pope Francis Rejects Unrepentant Homosexual as French Ambassador – D. McClarey JD Don’t call Patricia Jannuzzi’s Reinstatement a Victory – […]

cpola
cpola
Thursday, April 16, AD 2015 4:45am

Tom D, so what now?

Janet Baker
Thursday, April 16, AD 2015 7:49am

Don’t you understand? He’s NOT GAY ENOUGH. He does not fit Francis’ story line at all, practices his faith apparently.

Patti Day
Patti Day
Thursday, April 16, AD 2015 12:49pm

All the Vatican has done is allow the ‘appointment’ to languish beyond the 90 day date for accepting the ambassador’s credentials. Apparently that’s the diplomatic way of saying ‘No thanks’ without embarrassing either side. Someone didn’t get the memo.

Ronk
Ronk
Thursday, April 16, AD 2015 6:32pm

Actually this looks like yet another sad case where a man is claimed by the gay lobby as “one of us” merely on the grounds that he is not married, nor known to have a girlfriend. And the world’s mass media have unquestioningly taken this up and run with it. Despite the fact that as far as I can make out, Monsieur Stefanini has never been known to say or do anything to suggest that he is afflicted with any degree of same-sex attraction disorder, much less that he identifies as “gay” (i.e. thinks that sodomy is OK, or is a sodomite himself). On the contrary the evidence shows that he is a thoughtful, convinced and devoutly believing and practising Catholic, which of course excludes the possiblity of being “gay”. Unfortunately as a senior diplomat he is unable to defend himself as anything he said would be seen as undiplomatic and interpreted by the gay-lobby media as either “homophobic” or confirming their claim that he is “gay”.

Tom D
Tom D
Thursday, April 16, AD 2015 9:45pm

cpola, “so what now?”
Not sure. It sounds as if Stefanini and his government are not backing down, and if the LifeSiteNews report is true then the Vatican has no reason to ultimately reject him. We’ll have to see, it may take awhile for the dust to settle.

cpola
cpola
Friday, April 17, AD 2015 7:49am

We will have to wait then

eddie too
eddie too
Friday, April 17, AD 2015 1:11pm

from what I have read, thee is no evidence the man proposed for ambassador to the holy practices same-sex sex acts. it seems that it is all false accusations. maybe we should not comment about this when so much we read could simply be slanderous lies meant to damage this man, france, the president of france, pope francis, the holy see, the roman catholic church and the mystical body of Christ.

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