Pope Francis personally arranged meeting with gay couple

Video by Vimeo user Marisa Marchitelli

The Vatican on Friday said Pope Francis’ “only real audience” while visiting Washington, D.C., was a former student and his family.

Turns out, that audience was a gay couple.

Pope Francis met with Yayo Grassi, an openly gay Argentine, and his longtime partner on Sept. 23, a day before the pope met with Kim Davis, the Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licences, CNN reported.

Grassi told CNN that the pope personally emailed him to arrange the brief encounter, weeks ahead of the pope’s trip to the U.S. Vatican spokesman Rev. Thomas Rosica confirmed to the Associated Press that Grassi was the student mentioned in the Vatican’s statement released Friday.

The Vatican said Friday that the pope’s meeting with Davis was not a “form of support” of her views.

Grassi told CNN that he was the pope’s student from 1964 to 1965 at the Inmaculada Concepcion high school in Flores, Argentina. He added that Pope Francis never condemned his sexuality or his same-sex relationship of 19 years.

“He has never been judgmental,” Grassi said. “He has never said anything negative.”