Davis was jailed for five days, in 2015, for defying a court order to grant marriage licenses, on the grounds that she had personal religious objections to same-sex “marriage.”

According to the New York Times report, the Pope allegedly told Cruz: “I didn’t know who that woman was, and [Archbishop Viganò] snuck her in to say hello to me — and of course they made a whole publicity out of it.”

“I was horrified and I fired that nuncio,” Cruz recalled the Pope saying.

Catholic and secular media soon picked up on the New York Times story, with headlines such as: “I fired that nuncio” over Kim Davis meeting, Pope Francis reportedly said of Archbishop Viganò; and Kentucky’s Kim Davis might have played a role in Vatican infighting. MORE