Foreign
U.S.-Vatican Relations on Hold
An ambassador to the Holy See must be chosen by the Obama administration in order for relations to be normalized.
S BY EDWARD PENTIN
enior vatican officials are eagerly waiting to find out who will be President Obama’s pick as the next U.S.
ambassador to the Holy See, but the administration faces an uphill task in finding the right candidate. The Holy See views the appoint-
ment as a test for the kind of relations the administration wishes to have with the Catholic Church in the sec- ond term. “It’s a significant choice for us as it
shows the extent of their interest in this relation,” a senior Vatican diplomat tells Newsmax on con- dition of anonymity. Those relations came under considerable strain during Obama’s first term as the adminis- tration pursued a number of poli- cies at odds with church teaching, the most significant clash being over the administration’s Depart- ment of Health and Human Ser- vices (HHS) mandate. The policy requires Catholic employers to cover abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization in their employee health insurance plans. Several Catholic organizations
have filed lawsuits against the admin- istration, some of them successfully. U.S. bishops also took a firm lead in strongly opposing the policy.
36 NEWSMAX | MARCH 2013 The dispute is just one of the diffi-
culties facing the administration. The Vatican usually prefers someone who has similar core values (although this is not obligatory); for the Democrats, any new ambassador must naturally have sympathy for its policies. A candidate does not necessarily
have to be Catholic but “must be some- one who can have some influence, who is aware of the core values that will be essential to building bridges,” says the official. “We need to have a real interlocutor, also for them —
LIAISON Former Ambassador to the Holy See Miguel Diaz meets with Pope Benedict at the summer papal residence in 2009.
the administration, and with whom the Holy See can work. “They must share the same val-
ues otherwise it’s a little difficult,” the Vatican diplomat says, adding that the appointee “should be pro- life because life is an important issue.” The Vatican will occasion-
HOLY VISIT President and first lady Michelle Obama greet Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2009.
someone helpful or interesting who can build a strong relationship and maintain good relations.” The Vatican says it is also not necessary for the can- didate to be a political appointee, and could be a Foreign Service official. But it must be someone “recognized” by
ally veto a candidate, but only on grounds of personal morality, especially if a candidate has mari- tal status issues. The administra- tion allegedly had some difficulty in finding a suitable candidate in Obama’s first term, eventually settling on Miguel Diaz, a theol- ogy professor at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Minnesota.
Diaz was able to work closely with
the Holy See on a number of common interests related to peace, justice, and human rights, specifically initiatives in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS sufferers and combatting human traf- ficking.
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