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Vatican rejects gay militant as French ambassador

After refusing to accept the appointments of a homosexual militant and a divorcée as ambassador from France to the Holy See, the Vatican has acceded to the appointment of a Catholic in good standing with the Church, reports Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, LifeSiteNews.com.

After a one year standoff with the Vatican, French President Nicholas Sarkozy withdrew the appointment of Jean-Loup Kuhn-Delforge, who has been described in the Italian media as a "declared militant homosexual." He has contracted a civil union with a man through France's Civil Solidarity Pact legislation and shares his last name.

The Vatican had steadfastly refused to give the "placet" to Kuhn-Delforge's appointment, signifying acceptance. Last week, Vatican sources said that another candidate, Stanislas Lefebvre, who is also France's ambassador to Russia, had been accepted.

The rejection of Kuhn-Delforge follows the previous failed appointment by Sarkozy, the Catholic writer Denis Tillinac, who is divorced and remarried, in defiance of the Church's teaching on the permanence of matrimony.

Sarkozy's conflict with the Vatican over the choice of ambassador has drawn attention to his own ambiguous relationship with the Catholic religion. Although he claims to be a supporter of religious values and calls himself a semi-practicing Catholic, Sarkozy has been divorced twice and married three times. He has also launched a campaign for the legalization of sodomy worldwide.

The rejection of Kuhn-Delforge and Tillinac follow a nine month impasse with Argentina's President Kristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who also attempted to appoint a divorcée, Alberto Iribarne, as ambassador for the Holy See, without success. Iribarne reportedly withdrew his candidacy and was replaced by Juan Pablo Cafiero, who was quickly approved by the Vatican.

"The Catholic Church maintains a firm position regarding those moral issues and condemns divorce, besides considering homosexuality as a deviation, for which reason it is opposed to all laws that legalize unions between homosexuals," noted the French Press Agency (AFP).

AFP also reported that the rejection of the ambassador appointments by the Holy See has made headlines in Italy, generating widespread discussion about religious matters.

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TAGS: France the Holy See Vatican homosexual militant ambassador French President Nicholas Sarkozy moral issues divorce omosexuality

[10/09/2008]

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