Headlines
Vatican refuses to accept new gay French ambassador
Paris, April 10
The Vatican reportedly refused
to accept the nomination of the new French ambassador because he is
gay, a media report said on Friday.
Laurent Stefanini, a senior
diplomat and French President François Hollande’s chief of protocol, was
nominated in January, officials said.
Normally a new ambassador’s credentials are accepted within a month-and-half, The Local news portal reported.
The
Vatican does not usually explicitly refuse an envoy’s credentials, but a
prolonged silence after a nomination is interpreted as a rejection.
The
Vatican declined to comment when asked if Stefanini, who is openly gay,
was being rejected and if this was due to his sexuality.
A
French presidential aide said that the choice of Stefanini to represent
France at the Vatican resulted from “a wish by the president and a
cabinet decisionâ€.
French media widely reported that the apparent rejection by the Vatican was because of Stefanini’s homosexuality.
French
daily Le Journal du Dimanche quoted a Vatican source as saying that the
rejection was due to "a decision taken by the Pope himself".