For the second time in the past decade the Catholic Church are allegedly refusing to recognise the France’s nomination as their Ambassador to the Vatican.
Laurent Stefani an openly gay man, who had previously acted as chief of protocol to President François Hollande had his nomination approved by the French Cabinet on January 5th, but a wall of silence has from the Vatican, has held up his appointment.
Typically this confirmation process takes about a month or so to complete, but in the three months since Stefani’s appointment, the Vatican has yet to acknowledge France’s decision, a move that many are interpreting as an implicit rejection of the ambassador’s credentials. It’s believed that the Vatican is stonewalling Stefani because of his sexuality.
“France has chosen its ambassador to the Vatican,” affirmed Stephane Le Foll, a governmental spokesperson. “This choice was Stefani and that remains the French proposal.”
In 2007 the Vatican rejected Jean-Loup Kuhn-Delforge another gay would-be French ambassador, in a similar fashion by flat out refusing to recognise his appointment. After months of radio silence the French cabinet was forced to put forth a straight alternate who was later accepted by the Vatican. The French government has not announced whether it intends to select an alternate this time around.
