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 Mat Staver, attorney and founder of the Liberty Counsel, told CBS
News on Tuesday night that the pope met Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis
and her husband at the Vatican embassy in Washington last Thursday
during his visit to the United States.
Vatican chief spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said he would
neither confirm nor deny the report and that there would be no
further statement. This was unusual for the Vatican, which normally
issues either denials or confirmations.
The report of the meeting came after Francis largely avoided the
contentious issue of same-sex marriage during his historic visit to
the United States, where he addressed Congress, met with the
homeless and urged the country to welcome immigrants.
 The pope, speaking to reporters as he returned home from his 10-day
trip to the U.S. and Cuba on Monday, said government officials had a
"human right" to refuse to discharge a duty if they felt it violated
their conscience.
Staver, whose client was jailed for five days in September for
refusing to comply with a judge's order to issue the licenses in
line with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, told CBS his team did not
want to disclose the meeting until now to avoid interfering with the
pope's broader message during his visit.
"Because we didn't want the pope's visit to be overshadowed with Kim
Davis," Staver said in an interview on the network.
During the meeting, the pope told Davis to "stay strong", Staver
said.
Davis, whose parents are Catholic, has said her beliefs as an
Apostolic Christian prevent her from issuing marriage licenses to
same-sex couples. Her church belongs to a Protestant movement known
as Apostolic Pentecostalism.
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To keep a low profile, Davis went to the Vatican embassy in a sports
utility vehicle with her hair in a different style than her normal
look, Staver told CBS, adding he was not present.
Conservative Christians, including some Republican presidential
candidates, have said Davis is standing up for religious freedom.
But the American Civil Liberties Union, which went to court to
ensure same-sex couples can obtain marriage licenses in Rowan
County, has argued she has a responsibility as an official to issue
the licenses, regardless of her views.
The ACLU, in papers filed on Sept. 21 with the judge hearing the
case, asked the court to require Davis to stop making alterations to
the licenses, such as removing any reference to the Rowan County
clerk's office.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Curtis Skinner in San
Francisco and Philip Pullella in Rome; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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