Obama Nominates Holy See Ambassador

Miguel Diaz
Miguel Diaz (photo: csbsju.edu)

President Barack Obama has nominated Catholic theologian Miguel Díaz as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.

Díaz is currently a theology professor at St. John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict in Collegeville, Minn. Go here to read more about his credentials in a press release issued by the university.

Díaz served as a member of Obama’s Catholic advisory board during his presidential campaign. But according to some media reports published today after his nomination, despite his support for the pro-abortion Obama, Díaz is committed to Church teachings regarding the sanctity of human life, unlike many of the Catholic Democrats rumored to have been under consideration for the Vatican post.

However, Díaz is a member of the speaker’s bureau of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a pro-Obama organization that was criticized last fall by some Church leaders, including Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver.

In a speech responding to arguments put forward by pro-Obama Catholic law professor Doug Kmiec, Archbishop Chaput said Kmiec’s “activism for Senator Obama, and the work of Democratic-friendly groups like Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, have done a disservice to the Church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, undermined the progress pro-lifers have made, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue instead of fighting within their parties and at the ballot box to protect the unborn.”

And Díaz also publicly supported the nomination of pro-abortion Catholic Kathleen Sebelius as Obama’s secretary of Health and Human Services. The nomination of Sebelius was opposed by many Church leaders, including her own bishop, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., who last year publicly requested Sebelius not present herself for reception of Communion because of her pro-abortion record as governor of Kansas.

Comments Deal Hudson at InsideCatholic.com, “It will be interesting to watch how the confirmation process proceeds with Prof. Diaz. Questions will be asked about his suitability as a U. S. diplomat to the Holy See. The Holy See itself may express reservations about his visible support for a pro-abortion Catholic like Sec. Sebelius.”