Pope met with clerk jailed over licences

Pope Francis secretly met a Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licences to gay couples and gave her words of encouragement, her attorney said.

Mat Staver, attorney and founder of the Liberty Counsel, told CBS News that the pope met Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and her husband at the Vatican embassy in Washington last Thursday during his visit to the United States.

Vatican chief spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said he would neither confirm nor deny the report and that there would be no further statement.