Pope’s meeting with Kentucky clerk divides public

A Kentucky county clerk who had been jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples secretly met Pope Francis in a move that disappointed many liberal Catholics and encouraged officials who support her stance.

The meeting with Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, and comments by the pope, may spur action by local officials across the United States who have resisted issuing marriage licenses to gay couples since the U.S. Supreme Court's June decision to legalize same-sex marriage.

Mat Staver, an attorney for Davis and founder of Liberty Counsel, a law firm that champions conservative Christian causes, told Reuters the meeting was not about sending a message to other clerks or judges.

'It was really a meeting between the pope and Kim Davis and her husband, Joe, to encourage her,” he said. 'It was an amazing opportunity for her to meet the pope, and for him to be able to stand beside another Christian and to encourage another person who exercised her faith and went to jail for it.”

Staver would not say whether the Vatican or Davis's representatives had initiated contact about a meeting.

The issue Davis came to symbolize has for months been a key focus of GOP presidential campaigns. In May, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal issued protections for businesses that refuse to serve same-sex marriages. In August, U.S. Sen Ted Cruz held a rally with Richard and Betty Odgaard, who were fined after refusing to host a same-sex ceremony at their bistro and gallery in Grimes. And in September, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee rallied with Davis as she was released from jail.

Her meeting with the pope angered gay activists and came as a frustrating letdown for gay and liberal American Catholics, many of whom had been encouraged by an earlier remark by Pope Francis that 'If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

According to a new Ipsos/Reuters online poll, 73 percent of respondents said they strongly agreed or agreed somewhat with the pope's statement.

'The news that Pope Francis met privately ... with Kim Davis throws a wet blanket on the good will that the pontiff had garnered during his U.S. visit,” Francis DeBernardo, executive director of gay and lesbian Catholic advocacy group New Ways Ministry, said in an email. 'Pope Francis needs to state clearly where he stands in regard to the inclusion of LGBT people in the church and society.”

Still, Pope Francis is enjoying strong approval ratings from Americans of all political stripes, according to the poll, conducted Sept. 21-28, before the meeting with Davis was disclosed. Some 60 percent said they had a favorable opinion of him, while only 10 percent viewed him unfavorably.

One respondent, 67-year-old Catholic Judy Fitzpatrick who describes herself as a moderate Republican, said the meeting did not change her favorable opinion, even though she thinks Davis should step down as county clerk.

Davis and her husband met the pope on Thursday during the Washington leg of his U.S. visit. The Vatican confirmed the meeting.

'He told me before he left ... ‘Stay strong.' That was a great encouragement,” Davis told ABC, saying that her meeting with Pope Francis 'kind of validates everything.”

As the pope returned from his trip Monday, he said government officials had a 'human right” to refuse to discharge a duty if they felt it violated their conscience.

In Texas, Alabama and elsewhere, a number of clerks and judges have opposed same-sex marriage and have mounted roadblocks to such unions.

Alabama Probate Judge Nick Williams, for one, has said he would be willing to follow Davis.

'Absolutely, I feel the same way. This is a cause worth standing up for,” said Williams, who ordered his deputies in Washington County not to issue any licenses at all since the Supreme Court ruling.

Davis was jailed for five days in September for refusing to comply with a judge's order to issue marriage licenses in line with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. She has said her beliefs as an Apostolic Christian prevent her from issuing licenses to same-sex couples.