# Punking the Pope. Who does the Vatican punish for the Kim Davis fiasco? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 3, 2015, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punking-the-pope-who-does-the-vatican-punish-for-the-kim-davis-fiasco/733343 "2015-10-03T05:50:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punking-the-pope-who-does-the-vatican-punish-for-the-kim-davis-fiasco/733343/21 "2015-10-04T11:26:00Z")
> [@camille](#): > > There’s an interesting article in [Esquire](http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a38440/pope-francis-swindled-kim-davis-meeting/) that also points to Vigano. Seems there are still Pope Benedict loyalists who are not happy with this new Pope: > > And this is where Vigano comes in. > > The man is a real player within the institutional church. He first came to prominence as a whistleblower during one of the several investigations of the Vatican Bank, which may be what got him exiled to this godless Republic in the first place. > > Despite that fact, Vigano is well-known to be a Ratzinger loyalist and he always has been a cultural conservative, particularly on the issue of marriage equality. In April, in a move that was unprecedented, Vigano got involved with an anti-marriage equality march in Washington sponsored by the National Association For Marriage. (And, mirabile dictu, as we say around Castel Gandolfo at happy hour, one of the speakers at this rally was Mat Staver, who happens now to be Kim Davis’s lawyer.) > > In short, Vigano, a Ratzinger loyalist, who has been conspicuous and publicly involved in the same cause as Kim Davis and her legal team, arranges a meeting with Davis that the legal team uses to its great public advantage. That Esquire blog entry is fascinating. Thank you for sharing it. If half of the political complexity laid out is true, it is amazing that more of this intrigue doesn’t come out. It sure does seem the Pope got played. Given his proactive behavior and ambitious brand repositioning goals for the Catholic church, I suspect that this will translate to action from him, either direct revenge or just moving to further counter the conservative/Ratzinger junta and their influence. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punking-the-pope-who-does-the-vatican-punish-for-the-kim-davis-fiasco/733343/22 "2015-10-04T11:42:27Z")
I’m fairly confident nobody outside the U.S. much cares about this. The Pope has a broader portfolio than just one country. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punking-the-pope-who-does-the-vatican-punish-for-the-kim-davis-fiasco/733343/23 "2015-10-04T11:45:59Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I’m fairly confident nobody outside the U.S. much cares about this. The Pope has a broader portfolio than just one country. It would be nice to think so, but I get the impression that the players in the Vatican keep score and have long memories. Francis, for all of his externally-facing words and actions, is an internal Vatican player. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punking-the-pope-who-does-the-vatican-punish-for-the-kim-davis-fiasco/733343/24 "2015-10-04T13:15:33Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > And the statement was immediately followed by sacking a gay priest. Not for sexually abusing children mind you but for having a boyfriend. So… You can take his words to the bank or his deeds. Your choice. Personally I didn’t see any stripes changing last week. I doubt any of us know enough about Vatican politics to have a clue what’s going on. I don’t know if the Pope is mad at anyone, I couldn’t care less. But the question is who’s responsible and people are pointing to Vigano. He’s the ambassador to the US. I imagine they can’t replace him overnight, assuming they even want to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punking-the-pope-who-does-the-vatican-punish-for-the-kim-davis-fiasco/733343.md?page=1)