On Tuesday, Pope Francis gave a wide-ranging interview to the French newspaper LaCroix. Included were some salient words Francis offered in response to this question: “In a secular setting, how should Catholics defend their concerns on societal issues such as euthanasia or same-sex marriage?”

The state, he said, “must also respect [people’s] consciences. The right to conscientious objection must be recognized within each legal structure because it is a human right. Including for a government official, who is a human person.”

Those words reflected the response he gave last year when he flew back to Rome from the United States. He was asked if he supported people who for reasons of conscience couldn’t “discharge their duties as government officials, for example in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples?”

Francis answered, “Conscientious objection is a right that is a part of every human right. It is a right. And if a person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right.” He emphasized the obligation of courts to recognize, respect and protect this right. “Otherwise we would end up in a situation where we select what is a right, saying ‘this right that has merit, this one does not.’ It [conscientious objection] is a human right.”

When pressed to say whether government officials had that right as well, Francis insisted they do. “It is a human right” and as a human person, the official has that right.

Kim Davis’s Conscience

Readers will remember that the press asked the questions because Francis had met with Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis in Washington, D.C., at the end of his visit. The state of Kentucky had sent her to jail for refusing to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

The meeting had been arranged by her lawyer, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel. Many in the media wondered whether Pope Francis was aware of Kim Davis’s situation when he responded to the question. Mat announced in a press release that “not only did Pope Francis know of Kim Davis, he personally met with her to express his support.”

That got an apoplectic response from much of the media. Some sources even insinuated both were lying about the meeting. They were not.

I introduced Mat to the then-apostolic nuncio, Carlo Maria Viganò, at the 2015 March for Marriage. Mat is an Evangelical Christian, yet in an address from the platform he cited the necessity of rediscovering the natural moral law and honored Catholics for our work in the struggle to defend marriage. The nuncio complimented him after the address. That led to the invitation.

One of the members of the Press who covered the matter accurately was Robert Moynihan of Inside the Vatican. Moynihan wrote, “It was the Holy Father’s explicit request to visit a prison in Philadelphia, and he took the time to speak with each of the 100 prisoners he met on that occasion. This is the attitude that prompted the Holy Father to receive Kim, who had been in jail.”

Francis “clearly ‘wrapped his protective mantle’ around Kim Davis, discreetly, in private, in a way completely hidden from the world, but in a way that was deeply moving for her personally, as a person of conscience.”

Kim Davis is a sincere Christian. Her incarceration was a violation of her constitutional rights and an abuse of power. She should have been accommodated, as the United States Constitution requires. Instead, she was jailed for being a Christian who does not separate her faith from her life. As Francis said on the plane back from Rome and again in the interview with LaCroix, she had a right to object and have that objection respected.

This is an important lesson coming from the pope. The right to conscientious objection applies to all, including government officials. The state cannot take it away. Recognizing this and fighting for it becomes more urgent as the Obama regime increasingly denies the fundamental right to religious freedom.