Pope met with gay couple during visit to Washington
Pontiff met with a former student the day before his now well-criticized meeting with Kim Davis
Amid all the hullabaloo over Pope Francis meeting with Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, the pontiff also met with a same-sex couple from Washington during his visit last week.
According to The New York Times, Yayo Grassi, a former student of the pope’s when he taught at the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción, a Jesuit high school in Santa Fe, Argentina, confirmed that he had been granted a 15- to 20-minute-long meeting with the pope. Grassi was accompanied by his partner, Iwan Bagus, and four other friends. The couple has been together for 19 years. The couple later posted a video of the encounter online, including to Grassi’s Facebook page.
Grassi told the Times that his group met with the pontiff at the Vatican Embassy in Washington on Sept. 23, one day before Francis met with Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who has refused to allow her office to issue same-sex marriage licenses if those licenses bear her name, her official title, or any reference to her office.
According to Grassi, he resumed contact with Francis when he was the archbishop of Buenos Aires, and visited the pontiff at the Vatican in September 2013. He later asked for an audience with the pope when the pontiff was planning to come to the United States.
“Once I saw how busy and exhausting his schedule was in D.C., I wrote back to him saying perhaps it would be better to meet some other time,” Grassi told the Times. “Then he called me on the phone and he told me that he would love to give me a hug in Washington.”
After it was revealed that the pope had met with Davis, the Vatican began to distance itself from the controversy surrounding the county clerk. A spokesman for the Vatican said that “the only real audience granted by the Pope” at the embassy was the one with Mr. Grassi and his group.
In response to details of the meeting with Grassi, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) issued a statement praising the meeting. The organization had previously issued a statement expressing its disappointment that the pope had met with Davis while seemingly snubbing an invitation to meet with a group of LGBT Catholics while he was in Washington.
“It is heartening news that Pope Francis met privately with his friend and former student, Yayo Grassi, and his partner of 19 years, Iwan,” Chad Griffin, HRC’s president, said in a statement. “It now not only appears that the Pope’s encounter with Kim Davis has been mischaracterized, but that Pope Francis embraced these longtime friends.”
The National LGBTQ Task Force also issued a statement responding to the news of the Pope’s visit with Grassi.
“As a Catholic I’m glad that the Pope is distancing himself from what Kim Davis stands for — which is discrimination against LGBTQ people and blatant disregard for the law,” said Russell Roybal, deputy executive director of the Task Force. “We are also pleased to note that Pope Francis met privately while in Washington with one of his former students who is openly gay and his partner. Indeed, the gay man concerned has characterized the Pope as being ‘nonjudgmental.’ This gives us some further interesting insight into the thinking of the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion people. Now we urge Pope Francis to go further than just meeting with us and to change the teachings of the church to fully welcome and affirm all LGBTQ Catholics.”
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.