What “highly placed Vatican officials”?
Sorry, if that same answer was given to certain other Catholics on here about something the pope said that was not seen as a positive thing for him, they would question the source.
In my mind, there could be another explanation. I’m not up on Vatican rejections of ambassadors, but perhaps there were other reasons in the past that could apply here.
“What “highly placed Vatican officials”?...”
The same ones that are routinely quoted sans attribution when the Holy See wants to make a point. I think you are being blinded by your prejudice against the current Pope and just don’t want to accept that he is doing the right thing here. The Vatican doesn’t do things the way you are suggesting. It is medieval and decidedly old school in the way it handles diplomacy. This is how the Holy See rejects ambassadors (on the very rare occasions when that happens). It is the same way Pope’s Kings and Emperors communicated their royal displeasure in centuries past. They don’t give the target of their royal displeasure the dignity of an acknowledgement. They just silently snub them. It is the diplomatic equivalent to the King walking through a crowd of nobles at court and greeting them and then seeing one not in favor and just staring past him or looking at the sky in stony silence. It is deeply insulting and the French are no doubt seething.
But as for a formal or public statement explaining things, that is just not done in the Vatican. Frankly as a trad Catholic, I am surprised you don’t understand this. The Vatican is the worlds last Christian absolute monarchy and while some of the externals may have changed, the basic protocol in the Vatican is still that of a Royal Court from the ancien regime.