BALTIMORE (AP) – The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have given standing ovations to the Vatican U.S. ambassador who was behind Pope Francis’ controversial meeting with Kentucky clerk Kim Davis.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano received the warm reception as he gave his customary address to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Vigano had invited Davis to be among those the pope greeted in the Vatican embassy in Washington during Francis’ September visit to the U.S.
Davis’ lawyer characterized the meeting as a papal endorsement of her refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses, but the Vatican insisted that was not the case.
In his speech Monday in Baltimore, Vigano didn’t mention Davis. He urged the bishops to persevere in working to “preserve a moral order in society” and said they should not “fall prey” to “secularized and increasingly pagan” practices.
