FRANCE'S NEXT VATICAN ENVOY NOT GAY, NOT DIVORCED: DIPLOMAT
Monday, 29 September 2008 15:51:00 GMT
ROME, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - France has settled on an envoy to represent Paris at the Vatican after the Holy See rejected a gay candidate, a French diplomatic source told AFP on Monday.
France had earlier decided against proposing author Denis Tillinac for the post because he is divorced, sources close to the dossier said.
Instead, Stanislas Lefebvre de Laboulaye, currently France's ambassador to Moscow, is to take up the post, the diplomatic source said.
The Beirut-born Lefebvre de Laboulaye has represented France in Moscow since November 2006, following stints as ambassador to Madagascar and consul general in Jerusalem in the 1990s.
The last French ambassador to the Holy See, Bernard Kessedjian, died in December 2007.
The gay man whose candidacy to replace Kessedjian was rejected is a career diplomat who is in a civil union with his partner, the sources said.
The Roman Catholic Church condemns both divorce and active homosexuality, and strongly opposes legal rights for gay couples.
The Vatican is rarely placed in the position of opposing potential ambassadors on personal grounds.
However, Argentina has also had difficulty naming a new ambassador, having withdrawn the candidacy of divorced former justice minister Alberto Iribarne, who is divorced and living with another woman.
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