WASHINGTON (CNS) — A week after an inspector general’s report chided Ambassador Douglas Kmiec for his “unconventional approach to his role,” the U.S. representative to Malta submitted his resignation April 16.

It came in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that noted “my voice has been prevented from speaking; my pen has been enjoined from writing; and my actions have been confined to the ministerial (diplomatic),” not allowing him to touch on broader interfaith topics he saw as part of his portfolio.

Kmiec, a Catholic who regularly wrote on faith (including for Catholic News Service) before he became ambassador, was criticized in the inspector general’s audit for “outside activities” that “have detracted from his attention to core mission goals.”

It said that “based on a belief that he was given a special mandate to promote President (Barack) Obama’s interfaith initiatives, he has devoted considerable time to writing articles for publication in the United States as well as in Malta and to presenting his views on subjects outside the bilateral portfolio.”

After the audit was released, Kmiec blamed the criticisms on a handful of mid-level State Department employees who he said bristled at his expressions of faith and his efforts to promote interfaith understanding.

Kmiec said in a statement to the press that he was not pressured in any way by Clinton, Obama “or anyone” to resign, but that “with my dedication impugned” by the audit report, he no longer felt certain he could accomplish the work of the office and have the administration’s “needs and perspectives heard in the best possible light.”

“I know it is popular to think that all resignations are forced or motivated by some hidden reason,” he wrote, but “my resignation is not a product of force unless one means ... the force of principle.”

In his letter to Clinton, Kmiec drew parallels between her public comment on issues such as opportunity that is not limited by gender or Internet freedom and his efforts to draw on his personal faith while conducting the work of his office.

“I make no apology for that which George Washington commended to us in farewell address or that you yourself observed eloquently during the Texas primary; it is faith, you said, that sustains our soldiers in battle,” he wrote.

In his resignation letter to Obama, Kmiec described the audit as expressing “dissatisfaction with the extent of the time during my service that I’ve devoted to promoting what I know you believe in most strongly — namely, personal faith and greater mutual understanding of the faiths of others as the way toward greater mutual respect. There is little question that the only true and lasting peace will be one that incorporates sensitivity to the world’s faith traditions in diplomacy.”

“I doubt very much whether one could ever spend too much time on this subject,” he added.

Kmiec was a former Reagan and Bush administration attorney and Pepperdine University law professor when he broke from his longtime Republican ties to support Obama’s candidacy, including with a book titled Can a Catholic Support Him? The book explained how, as a pro-life Catholic, he could back the Illinois Democrat despite the candidate’s support for keeping abortion legal.

(Kmiec’s column for Catholic News Service column has been on hiatus since he became active in the 2008 presidential campaign.)

Kmiec noted his resignation would be effective Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption. As of midday April 18, there had been no comment from the State Department or the White House.