France has named a new ambassador to the Holy See, ending an embarrassing 15-month deadlock over its rejected gay nominee whom Paris seemed determined to impose on the Vatican.
A terse official announcement said Philippe Zeller, 63, a former ambassador to Canada, Hungary and Indonesia, would be the new envoy to the Holy See. A practising Catholic and family man, his nomination was accepted in Rome in three weeks.
"We are thankful for this gesture by France,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, told the French daily La Croix with diplomatic understatement after the long struggle over the Socialist government’s previous nominee.
Early last year, Paris nominated Laurent Stefanini, 55, who is also Catholic but homosexual. He had always been discreet about his private life and enjoyed support from senior French prelates, but the government leaked his name to the media before the Vatican had approved it, ruffling feathers there after previous strains over its legalisation of same-sex marriage.
When months passed without an official Vatican reaction, a sign a candidate is unacceptable, Paris publicly defended Stefanini and insisted it would not put forward another name. It looked like France wanted to embarrass the Vatican after the Church supported mass protests against gay marriage.
Vatican officials insisted Stefanini’s homosexuality was not the reason for his rejection and Pope Francis even met him for a long private talk and a prayer.
France’s climbdown began last month when it announced that Stefanini would be given another plum post as its new ambassador to UNESCO. By replacing him with a classic Quai d’Orsay diplomat at the end of an unblemished career, the unpopular government signalled it was taking no more chances.
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