Today from France.com: "Pope Francis’ liberal credentials have taken a blow after the Vatican reportedly refused to accept the nomination of the new French ambassador, a close aide of President François Hollande, because he is gay.
"Laurent Stefanini, a senior diplomat and French President François Hollande’s chief of protocol, was nominated in early January but the Vatican has yet to accept his credentials, officials in Paris said.
"Normally a new ambassador’s credentials are accepted within a month and a half. The Vatican does not usually explicitly refuse an envoy’s credentials, but a prolonged silence after a nomination is interpreted as a rejection...
"A French presidential aide said that the choice of the 54-year-old to represent France at the Vatican resulted from “a wish by the president and a cabinet decision” and that the president regarded him as "one of our best diplomats." Libération daily headlined its article on the story with 'The Pope tarnishes his image'." FULL FRANCE.COM REPORT
HEREREMNANT COMMENT: This is so typical of the sacrilegious effrontery routinely served up by the dangerous secularist regime that is modern, self-destructing France. One can only hope that such brazen Christophobia from the former eldest daughter of the Catholic Church will help Pope Francis realize that the politics of appeasement will only encourage the evil conquerors of holy Christendom to step up their attacks on Christ's holy Church. Pope Francis must judge, and judge quickly and justly for all the world to see. France's attempted finger-in-the-eye of the Vatican should make it pretty obvious how effective Francis's famous refusal to judge has been so far.
That the Vatican has thus far rejected this diplomatic appointment is a good sign, of course, and demonstrates once again why the loyal Catholic opposition must not fear to raise its voice in respectful protest, promising the Vatican that when they set politics aside in favor of Tradition they will have no more loyal defenders in the world than traditional Catholics; but when they shirk their sacred duty before God and Tradition out of fear of a world gone mad they will be hard pressed to find harsher critics than us.