The Vatican has been dragging its feet on the approval of France’s ambassador to the Holy See, raising suspicions that it has effectively rejected the nomination of Laurent Stéfanini because he is gay.

The Vatican declined to comment on speculation about the delay.



Stéfanini, a 55-year-old practising Catholic, has been described in the Italian press as an exemplary candidate and a man of “exceptional culture”. He is a senior diplomat and chief of protocol in the French government of François Hollande.

His nomination was put forward in January but the Vatican has not responded, usually an indication that the potential ambassador has been rejected. Reports in the French and Italian press suggested the decision was clearly connected to Stéfanini being gay.

The controversy could tarnish Pope Francis’s image as being more tolerant than his predecessors over gay rights. When asked by a reporter in 2013 about the existence of a “gay lobby” within the Vatican, he responded: “Who am I to judge?” His words have been interpreted as a sign of some acceptance of gay people in a church that regards homosexual acts as a sin.

But on a trip to the Philippines earlier this year, the Argentinian pontiff decried efforts to “redefine family” and the institution of marriage, comments that were seen as an attack on marriage equality for gay men and lesbians.

French president François Hollande (left) with Laurent Stéfanini at the Elysée Palace in Paris. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The appointment of Stéfanini was blessed by the archbishop of Paris, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, according to a report in Out magazine. The French embassy to the Holy See declined to comment.

According to a report in the Vatican Insider, which closely follows the Vatican in Rome, Stéfanini was invited to a meeting with the apostolic nuncio in Paris, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, on 5 February and informally asked to step aside and renounce his nomination because of his sexual orientation.



The report, which did not disclose the source of the information, said the manner in which the request was made – during a private and informal meeting – underlined that it was considered a “very delicate” situation for the Vatican. Stéfanini told the archbishop that it was not in his mandate to renounce the nomination, since it was a matter for the French government to decide.

If Stéfanini has been rejected because he is gay, it would not be the first time the Vatican has turned down a candidate for controversial reasons.

The Vatican dismissed reports in 2009 that it had rejected three possible US candidates for ambassador put forward by the Obama administration because they supported abortion rights. But there have been two occasions in the past 10 years when the Vatican has openly objected to candidates – one from Argentina, who was divorced and lived with his new partner, and another from France, who was gay and in a civil union with another man.

A Vatican source told the Catholic News Service in 2009: “For Catholic ambassadors, there is the question of their matrimonial situation. But outside of that, I don’t think there are other criteria.”



In most cases, potential ambassadors are proposed to the Vatican before a formal nomination is made, at which point objections can be aired. It is unclear whether France had cleared the Stéfanini nomination beforehand.



