UPDATED: Vatican Refutes Kim Davis’ Claims: Meeting With Pope Not ‘A Form Of Support Of Her Position’

After days bungling a PR disaster the Vatican is distancing itself from the Pope’s meeting with Kim Davis.

Many were stunned and refused to believe the news when the attorney representing Kim Davis, literally hours after being shown to have made a grossly false claim about 100,000 Peruvians gathering to pray for her – complete with fake photograph – announced his client had a secret, private meeting with Pope Francis. The Vatican initially refused to confirm or deny that meeting, but ultimately admitted it took place, leaving many who had been impressed with the Pope during his U.S. visit feeling shocked, disappointed, and betrayed. 

Those feelings for some turned to anger when Kim Davis went on national television and announced the Pope embraced her, both physically and ideologically.

“He told me before he left, he said, ‘stay strong.’ That was a great encouragement. Just knowing that the pope is on track with what we’re doing, it kind of validates everything to have someone of that stature,” Davis said.

The Vatican has now acted to both distance itself from Davis, and to refute her claims of having the Pope’s support, stating the meeting was “brief,” Davis was one of “dozens” who met with the Pope, and his “brief greeting…should not be considered a form of support of her position.”

EXCLUSIVE: So, Who Was Really Behind Kim Davis Meeting The Pope?

“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 Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement Friday morning, the New York Times reports.

Rev. Lombardi went on to minimize the importance Davis and her attorney, Mat Staver, of the anti-gay hate group Liberty counsel, had placed on the meeting.

“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,” Lombardi added, speaking of the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C.

“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.”

UPDATE: 11:05 AM EDT –
“A senior Vatican official, who declined to be named, said there was a ‘sense of regret’ within the Holy See over the encounter,” Reuters reports. “He added that Davis had been in a line of people the pope had met at the Vatican embassy in Washington before he left for New York.”  

 

EARLIER:

Watch: Kim Davis Talks About Her Meeting With The Pope On ABC News

Kim Davis’ Attorney: Vatican Invited Her To Meet The Pope. Vatican Spokesman: No Comment

Kim Davis Secretly Met With Pope Francis, Her Attorney Says

 

Image by Michael Ehrmann/Aleteia via US Papal Visit on Flickr and a CC license