 Pope Francis secretly met with Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who was jailed for refusing to refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, during his visit to the U.S. (Reuters) 
 
 Two days after news of a Kim Davis-Pope Francis meeting renewed the U.S. fascination over what this pope stands for, the Vatican on Friday put out a statement that appeared to downgrade the visit’s significance, saying it should “not be considered a form of support” of the Kentucky clerk’s “position in all of its particular and complex aspects.” 
 
 Davis, an Apostolic Christian who went to jail rather than allow her office to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, has become a polarizing figure in the country’s debate over religious freedom. [New: Pope Francis reportedly met with a same-sex couple the day before he met with Kim Davis] 
 
 Since the revelation that she met with Francis — an event that was announced by her lawyer, not the Vatican, and kept secret until after the pope had returned to Rome — church insiders have been furiously swapping rumors about who exactly set up the meeting, which U.S. bishops knew of it, who was happy about it and who was upset. Yayo Grassi, a former Argentine student of Pope Francis, who had already met other times in the past with the Pope, asked to present his mother and several friends to the Pope during the Pope’s stay in Washington, DC,” a statement from Lombardi to CBS News reads. A close advisor to Pope Francis tweeted that the Pope was, in his words, “exploited” by those who set up what the CBS 2 source says was a “meeting that never should have taken place.” 
 
 Some call it an attempt by highly placed church leaders in the U.S. to diminish the impact of the Pope’s visit. Rosica said he did not believe the pope was even indirectly involved in inviting Davis, adding that the greeting was very brief and that she and her husband were among the many guests at the Washington embassy before the pope left for New York. Vatican spokesman Rev. It is a meeting some charge was orchestrated by the man who lived there, the Pope’s representative here, Carlo Maria Vigano. Looking to smother the fierce controversy, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Davis was one of "several dozen" people who had been invited by the Vatican ambassador to see Francis during his visit to the U.S. capital. “The brief meeting between Mrs. Kim Davis and Pope Francis at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C. has continued to provoke comments and discussion,” the statement said. “…The Pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs. Davis, and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects.” 
 
 Rosica tweeted out two separate stories Friday about Lombardi’s statement, each of which said it made clear the papal visit was not a validation of Davis’s actions. Vatican distances Pope Francis from Kentucky clerk Kim Davis http://t.co/paCNrNOR8v — Thomas Rosica (@FatherRosica) October 2, 2015 
 
 In response to the Vatican statements, Mat Staver, a lawyer for Davis and founder of the conservative group Liberty Counsel, offered a bit of detail on how the meeting came together, saying the the invitation to meet with Francis was “first conveyed” on Sept. 14, the day that Davis returned to work. “Neither Kim Davis nor Liberty Counsel ever said the meeting was an endorsement of her legal case,” Staver said in a statement. “Rather, the meeting was a pastoral meeting to encourage Kim Davis in which Pope Francis thanked her for her courage and told her to ‘Stay strong,’” 
 
 Staver said Vatican security picked up Davis and her husband from their hotel and took them to the Vatican embassy for the meeting last Thursday. Not even Lombardi knew about it ahead of time, nor did the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which would have opposed it. “My general sense is that papal visits don’t have a big impact on politics,” he said. What’s an Apostolic Christian and why is Kim Davis’s hair so long?
– A Vatican official says there is now "a sense of regret" that Pope Francis ever met Kim Davis, reports Reuters—and that could be bad news for the archbishop who set up the meeting. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican's ambassador to the US, was appointed by Benedict XVI and is known for his hardline stance against same-sex marriage, the Washington Post reports. Vatican officials say Francis wasn't briefed on the Davis case and the meeting "should not be considered a form of support," which has left church insiders wondering whether Vigano deliberately blindsided Francis or merely underestimated just how controversial the meeting would turn out to be, the New York Times reports. A Vatican source tells CBS 2 that Francis was "exploited" by those with their own agendas and the meeting should never have happened. Davis' lawyer, who first announced the meeting, tells the Times that it was set up by Vigano—whom he met at an anti-gay marriage rally in Washington, DC, earlier this year—but they were "led to believe that the invitation did come directly from Pope Francis." The lawyer says the Vatican's description of the meeting as a very brief one among dozens is "absolute nonsense" and "somebody is trying to throw some people under the bus." Bishops are required to ask for permission to resign when they turn 75, and it seems likely that Vigano's will be accepted when he reaches that age in January, the Times notes. (Francis met a gay couple the day before the Davis meeting.)