François Hollande said to have given up on attempt to send Laurent Stefanini to Holy See after impasse over credentials

France has abandoned attempts to appoint a gay Catholic diplomat as its ambassador to the Vatican after a nine-month standoff, according to French media.



Laurent Stefanini, a widely respected chief of protocol to François Hollande, was named as the French president’s choice to serve as ambassador to the Holy See in January. However, without explicitly rejecting his nomination, the Vatican has not accepted his credentials. A new ambassador’s credentials are normally accepted within weeks.



Sources at the Élysée palace told French daily Libération that Hollande had given up his efforts over the appointment. “It’s dead,” a source was quoted as saying.



The move comes amid uncertainty over Pope Francis’s stance on homosexuality. Liberal Catholics seized on his statement on homosexuality early in his papacy, when he told reporters: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”



However, the pontiff bolstered conservative Catholics by meeting Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licences, on his recent US trip – although the Vatican later claimed the meeting should not be seen as the pope showing support for her position. Earlier this month, at the start of the Vatican’s three-week summit on family issues, it sacked a priest who came out as gay.



Both Élysée and Vatican officials declined to comment on the reports.

Philippe Levillain, a papal specialist and French historian, told the paper the Vatican did not want to be seen as homophobic. “There’s a flagrant contradiction between the openness Pope Francis is showing towards homosexuals and the refusal to accept Laurent Stefanini’s nomination. It’s not a very charitable attitude,” Levillain said.



A report in the French satirical title Le Canard Enchainé in April claimed that Francis had a “very discreet” meeting with Stefanini, in which the pontiff said his objection to the appointment was not personal but an indication of the Vatican’s disapproval of France’s 2013 gay marriage law.



Around the same time, the Élysée palace said France would be sticking to its choice of ambassador. “Laurent Stefanini is the only candidate nominated by the republic and the council of ministers,” it said.

Stefanini, described by French commentators as a brilliant diplomat, was France’s second-in-command at its Vatican embassy between 2001 and 2005. His nomination as ambassador was supported by the archbishop of Paris.



According to Libération, Hollande is not expected to put forward another candidate for the Vatican post before the next French presidential election in 2017.

