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VATICAN

France gives up on bid to name gay envoy to Vatican

France's attempts to name a gay ambassador to the Vatican are now dead in the water.

France gives up on bid to name gay envoy to Vatican
Laurent Stefanini, with President François Hollande. Photo: AFP

France on Wednesday abandoned its attempts to name a gay man as ambassador to the Holy See in the face of opposition from
the Vatican, making him its representative to UNESCO instead.

The nomination of Laurent Stefanini, President Francois Hollande's head of protocol, to the job at the UN's Paris-based educational, cultural and scientific body ends a year of diplomatic wrangling.

Hollande proposed Stefanini for the Vatican job in January 2015 but when no confirmation from the Holy See was forthcoming, French and Italian media reported he had been snubbed due to his homosexuality.

French Catholic paper La Croix said last year the Vatican considered it a “provocation” that Stefanini had been put forward and some reports said it was the Vatican's revenge for Hollande's Socialist government legalizing same-sex marriage in 2013.

Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said in April last year that Stefanini remained “France's choice”.

A statement released after the meeting of the French cabinet on Wednesday did not give the new name put forward by Paris for the Vatican position.

Stefanini, 56, worked on Vatican affairs while working in a lower-ranking diplomatic role between 2001 and 2005. He became head of presidential protocol in 2010 under then president Nicolas Sarkozy and retained the role when Hollande came to power two years later.

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WOMEN

Pope appoints French woman to senior synod post

Pope Francis has broken with Catholic tradition to appoint a woman as an undersecretary of the synod of bishops, the first to hold the post with voting rights in a body that studies major questions of doctrine.

Pope appoints French woman to senior synod post
Pope Francis has appointed Nathalie Becquart as undersecretary of the synod of bishops. She is the first woman to hold the post. Photo: AFP

Frenchwoman Nathalie Becquart is one of the two new undersecretaries named on Saturday to the synod, where she has been a consultant since 2019.

The appointment signals the pontiff's desire “for a greater participation of women in the process of discernment and decision-making in the church”, said Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary-general of the synod.

“During the previous synods, the number of women participating as experts and listeners has increased,” he said.

“With the nomination of Sister Nathalie Becquart and her possibility of participating in voting, a door has opened.”

The synod is led by bishops and cardinals who have voting rights and also comprises experts who cannot vote, with the next gathering scheduled for autumn 2022.

A special synod on the Amazon in 2019 saw 35 female “auditors” invited to the assembly, but none could vote.

The Argentinian-born pope has signalled his wish to reform the synod and have women and laypeople play a greater role in the church.

He named Spaniard Luis Marin de San Martin as the other under undersecretary in the synod of bishops.

Becquart, 52, a member of the France-based Xaviere Sisters, has a master's degree in management from the prestigious HEC business school in Paris and studied in Boston before joining the order.

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