Contents:
- PAPER CLAIMS POPE REJECTED GAY FRENCH DIPLOMAT AS AMBASSADOR TO HOLY SEE
- DON'T CALL HIM THE GAY AMBASSADOR: GéRARD ARD, FRANCE'S HEAD ENVOY TO THE U.S., WANTS TO BRG DIPLOMACY TO THE 21ST CENTURY
- VATIN'S SILENCE DRAWS FIRE OVER 'REJECTN' OF GAY FRENCH AMBASSADOR
- GAY DIPLOMAT AT CENTER OF UNHOLY ROW BETWEEN VATIN, FRANCE
- VATIN REPORTEDLY REJECTS NEW FRENCH AMBASSADOR, WHO IS GAY
- VATIN SPECTED OF REJECTG GAY FRENCH AMBASSADOR
- BEG GAY THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE: A PERSONAL ACUNT
- FRANCE PICKS GAY DIPLOMAT FOR UN ROLE AMID VATIN TENSNS
PAPER CLAIMS POPE REJECTED GAY FRENCH DIPLOMAT AS AMBASSADOR TO HOLY SEE
Clement Bene, France's mister for European affairs, has e out as gay, and he says he tends to fight for LGBTQ+ rights on the ntent -- cludg by visg the ci Poland that have clared themselv "LGBT-ee" zon. "I am gay, and I have no problem sayg , " Bene told the French LGBTQ+ magaze Tetu, acrdg to Poli's European edn.
DON'T CALL HIM THE GAY AMBASSADOR: GéRARD ARD, FRANCE'S HEAD ENVOY TO THE U.S., WANTS TO BRG DIPLOMACY TO THE 21ST CENTURY
The full Tetu terview will be published, 39, said he wanted to show that beg gay was "not an obstacle" to beg a ernment mister, siar to a bet posn the U. "I wouldn't want people to say I am fightg agast 'LGBT-ee' zon bee I am gay, " he said. He also tends to meet wh an abortn rights group has seen risg anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment the past few years, wh several towns signatg themselv "LGBT-ee" and the reelectn this year of homophobic Print Andrzej Duda, whose platform clud promis to block marriage and adoptn rights for same-sex upl.
Pope Francis met France’s nomated ambassador to the Holy See, who is gay, and told him that the Vatin would not accept his appotment, a French newspaper has a meetg over the weekend, the pontiff allegedly ced his displeasure wh a ntroversial 2013 gay marriage law France as part of his reason for the cisn, acrdg to the report satiril tle Le Canard Enchâé Francis also allegedly said he did not appreciate the manner which France had tried to put prsure on the Vatin by nomatg a man – 55-year-old Lrent Stéfani – who French officials knew would be ntroversial given the church’s views on homosexualy. The suggtn that Pope Francis would ny an unmarried gay man – who Italian prs reports has repeatedly been referred to as private his personal life – the chance to serve as France’s hight diplomat to the Vatin seemed to ntradict a statement he ma early his young papacy, when he said “who am I to judge?
” after he was asked about the existence of a “gay lobby” wh the Francis greets pilgrims and tourists i St Peter’s Square, Vatin Cy, for his weekly general dience on 22 April. He is so outspoken, fact—on Gaza, on the World Cup, on Syria—that the tail which might otherwise have distguished him most on Embassy Row has loomed irrelevant the background: Ard is openly gay, one of few openly gay ambassadors Washgton has ever hosted, and France’s first.
VATIN'S SILENCE DRAWS FIRE OVER 'REJECTN' OF GAY FRENCH AMBASSADOR
C., there’s one thg he is sure of: He don’t want to be known as the gay ambassador. For ee real time breakg news alerts sent straight to your box sign up to our breakg news emailsSign up to our ee breakg news emailsThe Vatin is facg accatns of homophobia after failg to ny claims that France’s new choice of ambassador to the Holy See has effectively been rejected bee of his sexualy.
Lrent Stefani, the openly gay diplomat at the centre of the row, was nomated as ambassador to the Vatin by France’s uncil of misters on 5 January. ”Italian media have been quick to remd Francis of ments about gays he ma 2013, which seemed to dite a shift attu om his ultra-nservative precsor Pope Benedict: “If someone is gay and is lookg for the Lord, who am I to judge him? You should not discrimate agast or margalise the people, and the Catechism says this as well, ” Francis told recently, though, Francis has spoken opposn to gay marriage and has clared that though he believ homosexual orientatn is not sful, homosexual acts are.
Lrent Stefani was nomated as France’s ambassador to the Holy See by the untry’s uncil of misters (Rex)Liberal Catholics’ hop for a more clive church were further dashed last October when an terim synod report on social issu, which stated that gay people had “gifts and quali to offer” was watered down drastilly by the time the fal versn appeared, followg a fierce backlash by nservative bishops. Commentators have noted the Vatin’s history when to of blackballg diplomats om 2008 blocked the appotment of gay French diplomat Jean-Loup Kuhn-Delfe as ambassador to the Vatin. And 2012 the Vatin rejected Bulgaria’s choice of ambassador to the Holy See bee, was claimed, he had wrten a novel ntag a gay sex Bulgarian diplomat Kiril Marichkov, a lawyer who speaks Italian and four other languag, and who is married to an Italian woman, appeared to be an ial choice to take over as Sofia’s man at the emerged that Archbishop Janz Bolonek, the Pope’s reprentative the Bulgarian pal, wrote to his superrs highlightg the offendg part of the novel, which was a falist for an annual lerary award his native untry.
GAY DIPLOMAT AT CENTER OF UNHOLY ROW BETWEEN VATIN, FRANCE
Some spect the stallg is bee the nomated diplomat is openly gay. France and the Vatin have experienced siar tensns over a gay diplomat the past. Increasgly, there is spicn that the Vatin is opposed to Stefani bee he is openly gay.
READ MORE: Catholic bishops – no agreement on gays and lbians. When asked about his posn on homosexualy recently, he famoly said: “If someone is gay and he search for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge? Nohels, the gay muny Paris expects the Pope to now practice what he preach.
A spokman for the Gay and Lbian Alliance here, Robert Simon – notg that the church hierarchy has plenty of discreetly gay prelat s ranks – says: “The church is phg toward hypocrisy… If you are a closeted gay, alright – if you are openly gay, we don’t want to talk to you. OPINION: 3 ways the Catholic Church should embrace gay rights.
VATIN REPORTEDLY REJECTS NEW FRENCH AMBASSADOR, WHO IS GAY
A gay French diplomat who was nomated January to reprent his untry the Vatin has not yet been approved by the Holy See, raisg qutns of whether he will ever get the assignment, Le Mon reported on Thursday. In 2008, France nomated another gay ambassador, and that also went Francis has sought to soften the Catholic Church's posn on the LGBT muny, famoly sayg "Who am I to judge? Reports the French and Italian prs suggted the cisn was clearly nnected to Stéfani beg ntroversy uld tarnish Pope Francis’s image as beg more tolerant than his precsors over gay rights.
VATIN SPECTED OF REJECTG GAY FRENCH AMBASSADOR
When asked by a reporter 2013 about the existence of a “gay lobby” wh the Vatin, he rpond: “Who am I to judge? ” His words have been terpreted as a sign of some acceptance of gay people a church that regards homosexual acts as a on a trip to the Philipp earlier this year, the Argentian pontiff cried efforts to “refe fay” and the stutn of marriage, ments that were seen as an attack on marriage equaly for gay men and print François Hollan (left) wh Lrent Stéfani at the Elysée Palace Paris. Stéfani told the archbishop that was not his mandate to renounce the nomatn, sce was a matter for the French ernment to Stéfani has been rejected bee he is gay, would not be the first time the Vatin has turned down a ndidate for ntroversial Vatin dismissed reports 2009 that had rejected three possible US ndidat for ambassador put forward by the Obama admistratn bee they supported abortn rights.
BEG GAY THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE: A PERSONAL ACUNT
But there have been two ocsns the past 10 years when the Vatin has openly objected to ndidat – one om Argenta, who was divorced and lived wh his new partner, and another om France, who was gay and a civil unn wh another man. ‘So, Mr Wall, have you ever had any homosexual experienc’? ‘And do you have any homosexual tennci?
Even as late as 1991, when John Major lifted the ban on gay men and lbians workg the Diplomatic Service and appoted me as the UK Ambassador to the EU Bssels, I do not believe he would have felt able to make that appotment if I had then been openly gay. The legal tolerance of sexual relatns between nsentg adults private merely unrled that homosexualy was seen as abnormal and perverse. Few walks of life accepted homosexualy as a normal difference.
Michael Cashman’s first ever gay kiss on Brish televisn laid him open to abe The Sun and public. Two years ago, I marched, relaxed and nfint, wh other gay and lbian Civil Servants, cludg a group om today’s FCO. Then, we lived a homophobic untry.
FRANCE PICKS GAY DIPLOMAT FOR UN ROLE AMID VATIN TENSNS
I did not fd easy knowg I was a gay man an anisatn where to be gay was a sackg offence.
And lighted that, today, people like me the Diplomatic Service n be proud of beg gay too. Foreword wrten by Sir Stephen Wall, a former Brish Ambassador who ncealed his homosexualy for his entire diplomatic reer, and extracted om the FCO report tled, ‘Homosexualy at the Foreign Office 1967-1991’ by Jam Southern.
In an terview last December, Clement Bene had vowed to vis one of the homophobic Polish towns and municipali shortly after revealg he was gay.