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Gay Man Who Met With Pope Francis Says The Kim Davis Meeting Was A "Set-Up"

"I think that he was extremely surprised."

On last night's episode of MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Yayo Grassi, the openly gay former student of Pope Francis, was on hand to talk about his meeting with the Supreme Pontiff last week in DC.

Related: The Vatican May Dump Man Who Organized Pope’s Meeting With Kim Davis, Analysts Say

Grassi was with his family and boyfriend of 19 years when he was reunited with Pope Francis–whom he'd first met over half a century earlier.

O'Donnell asked Grassi if Pope understood the man with him to be his boyfriend. Grassi responded by telling him that not only had Pope and his boyfriend been introduced before, but indeed Pope was well aware of their relationship:

Oh absolutely, yes yes yes yes. In fact, in that video, that segment that you just showed, when I introduced him to my boyfriend he said, ‘of course, I remember you. We met in Rome, in San Pietro.'

The subject then turned to Pope's much-talked-about meeting with Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis.

“Knowing the Pope as you do," O'Donnell asked, "what is your judgment about that meeting [with Kim Davis]?”

“He basically was set up for this meeting with Mrs. Davis," Grassi explained. "I think that he was extremely surprised. I was very surprised and very suspicious from the very beginning that this was not something that came naturally from the Pope as an invitation. When things started to come out was when I realized who was behind this. And I honestly wouldn’t have said anything had it not been that the Vatican press office released that statement and somehow the press got a hold of me."

The statement he's referring to from the Vatican press office reads: "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 for her position in all of its particular and complex aspects."

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