Vatican rejects French nominated gay ambassador

Diplomatic relations between France and the Vatican aren't exactly at an all-time high.

In fact it wouldn't be unfair to call them somewhat strained - and that's in spite of the Papal visit to this country last month.

Twice France has attempted to appoint a new ambassador to the Holy See, and twice the Vatican's perhaps less than enlightened response has been a polite but definite refusal.

The post became vacant last December, coincidentally on the eve of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to the Vatican, with the death of the then ambassador Bernard Kessedjian.

Paris - or more accurately, the French foreign ministry, looked around for a replacement and came up earlier this year with the 61-year-old writer and journalist, Denis Tillinac.

On the face of it Tillinac seemed like a sound choice. He was a close friend of the former French president, Jacques Chirac, and of course was a devout Catholic.

Just one slight problem - he had been married, divorced and was now remarried. So the Vatican said something along the lines of "grazie, ma non grazie" (although probably much more diplomatically) and rejected his nomination.

So the search began again and at one point there was talk of putting forward another writer - this time in the shape of the internationally acclaimed political historian, Max Gallo.

But finally the French settled for Jean-Loup Kuhn-Delforge, this country's former ambassador to Bulgaria, and currently head of the Consular Affairs Directorate at the foreign ministry in Paris, and a career diplomat.

But this is where you might be forgiven for thinking that perhaps Paris knew what the outcome of his nomination might be from the start.

For although Kuhn-Delforge is a practising catholic and has been in a long and stable relationship, it's with another man. He's openly gay.

So it perhaps came as no surprise last week that, as reported in the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, the latest French attempt to fill the vacant post was once again politely but most firmly rejected.

Now it might strike you odd that the Pope might be able to sanction visiting a head of state who has been married three times and divorced twice - as he did just last month, but has a problem with that same country's diplomatic representation "back home" being either divorced or gay, but that's the way it is.

So France is scouting around for another possibility and has, according to the national daily Le Figaro, come up with the current ambassador to Russia, Stanislas Lefebvre.

The 61-year-old is married (and has remained so to just the one woman) with four children, so should by all accounts fit the bill.

But there again, there's no telling.