Well, golly:

No photo — official, selfie or otherwise — of an encounter has emerged. But same-sex marriage-opposing Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis met with Pope Francis during his visit to the United States, according to her lawyer.

… “During the meeting Pope Francis said, ‘Thank you for your courage,’” according to the press release. “Pope Francis also told Kim Davis, ‘Stay strong.’ He held out his hands and asked Kim to pray for him. Kim held his hands and said, ‘I will. Please pray for me,’ and the Pope said he would. The two embraced.”

Davis was elated.

“I was humbled to meet Pope Francis,” she said in the press release. “Of all people, why me?”

She added: “I never thought I would meet the Pope. Who am I to have this rare opportunity? I am just a County Clerk who loves Jesus and desires with all my heart to serve him.” And: “Pope Francis was kind, genuinely caring, and very personable.”

Apparently it’s true. It was first reported by Robert Moynihan in his Inside the Vatican magazine (I can’t get a link to the article to work), citing Vatican sources. Based on this meeting, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Pope Francis supports Kim Davis. That doesn’t make Kim Davis’s course of action correct, but man, it’s hard to have a better ally than Pope “Who Am I To Judge?”

Love the people who admire Pope Francis for embracing the hated actually spitting now that he may have embraced Kim Davis, whom they hate

— Michael B Dougherty (@michaelbd) September 30, 2015