Pope Francis said on Monday, his departure day from America, the right of "conscientious objection" ought to be part and parcel of every government worker's claim to rights, a late-hour seeming stamp of support for Kentucky clerk Kim Davis.
Davis went to jail for five days for refusing to abide a judge's order to issue same-sex marriage licenses. She's now facing a new legal challenge because she's removed her name from licenses used for "gay" couples, and sent them out instead in her deputy's name.
Her case has ignited a firestorm among homosexual activists and First Amendment defenders, but on Monday, the pontiff seemed to side with Davis.
"Conscientious objection must enter into every judicial structure because it is a right," he said to reporters, while flying home to Rome on the heels of a 10-day stop in America, Reuters reported.
He went on, the Hill reported: "I can't have in mind all cases that can exist about conscientious objection but yes, I can say that conscientious objection is a right that is a part of every human right. And if someone does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right. Otherwise, we would end up in a situation where we select what is a right, saying, 'This right has merit, this one does not.'"
Davis, from Rowan County, has also received substantial support for her religious-based fight from the likes of presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz.