Posted on 08/27/2009 12:44:55 PM PDT by NYer
.- This morning Dr. Miguel Diaz arrived in Rome with his family to begin serving in his new position as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. Ambassador-designate Diaz said that he and his family are looking forward to the coming weeks and that he hopes to "deepen and expand upon the special relationship" between the U.S. and the Vatican.
Dr. Miguel Humberto Diaz, arrived with his family this morning at Rome's Fiumicino International Airport. Prior to leaving the U.S. he was sworn in as ambassador on August 21 in Washington D.C., the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See said in a statement.
"I look forward to the coming weeks as my family and I put down new roots in Rome. I will be honored to serve President Obama and the American people in my new role, and it will be a unique honor to meet his Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI," Ambassador-designate Díaz said.
Since President Ronald Reagan established formal diplomatic ties with the Holy See in 1984, the two states have worked together on a host of shared priorities, including religious freedom, inter-faith dialogue, peace and security, trafficking in persons, the environment, human rights and global health.
"I welcome the opportunity to deepen and expand upon the special relationship that has evolved between the United States and the Vatican over the past 25 years of formal diplomatic ties," Ambassador-designate Díaz added.
According to diplomatic protocol, Diaz will not assume his full responsibilities until he presents his letter of credentials from President Barack Obama to Pope Benedict XVI on a mutually agreed upon date. Díaz will refrain from granting interviews or participating in official events until that point in time, the embassy noted.
I hope somebody has a camera rolling when the Obama minion gets a drop of holy water on him and bursts into flames.
He looks like a lousy, left-wing, multi-culti, racist appointment. But so far the only pro-abortion signs that have turned up are his support of Sebelius and Obama, and his recommendation by groups that support abortion.
Well, we’ll see. I suppose the Vatican decided that it was somewhat pointless to turn down a fourth Obama candidate for the ambassadorship. If he’s a loser, they will just ignore him. He’s not about to convert Pope Benedict to the abortion camp or the liberation theology camp. If he is what I think he is, it just means that US-Vatican relations will be on a back burner for the next few years, which would have been the case in any event with Obama in the White House.
Actually, he is Cuban and yes, he is married with 4 children. Let's cut him some slack; the Vatican did.
Actually, I think he’s a particularly dangerous appointment. One of the reasons he was chosen is because he’s on some sort of “Hispanic Catholic” group that worked for Obama during the election.
Unfortunately, Hispanic Catholics receive really lousy catechesis, which in many cases is nothing but a sort of bilingual 1970’s “social justice” rehash where they learn nothing of God, the Faith, or ethics and the Christian life, and a lot about how a “just society” means that the government gives you things.
Abortion has made huge inroads among Hispanic Catholics because they have been targeted by groups like Planned Parenthood...mainly because they have so little formation in their Catholicism and are very eager to adopt what they perceive to be American behavior. Planned Parenthood also, oddly, pushes homosexuality in Hispanic neighborhoods by runnig condomn campaigns that depict traditional dislike of homosexuality as backwards, machista, and Old World.
So I actually think this guy is worse than some of the others. I think he will give the Vatican a distorted view of Hispanic Catholics, and at the same time, I think he will give Hispanic Catholics the idea that his heterodox moral views are acceptable to the Vatican.
I just want to ask, without offending, because I am not clear: WHY is it a good idea for the U.S. not to have diplomatic relations with a sovereign state with which it has no current animosities?
Regarding Kennedy's and Diaz's candidacies, though, I personally fail to see why it should have made any difference... after all, they represent a very significant strain of American Catholics who simply ignore traditional Church teachings whenever it is convenient and do we as Americans not want to send an honest image of ourselves abroad?
That said, I cannot deny the truth that I have a perverse fantasy of the spectacle of a Cafeteria Catholic Ambassador to the Holy See excommunicated while at his/her post. Of course, it is possible that that was exactly what His Holiness was trying to avoid. I suppose the timing is not quite right. Thirty years ago, maybe, or twenty-five years in the future, but we seem to be at the "trough" right now and just barely beginning to climb back up.
To my Catholic friends who STILL stand for something, they often find themselves OUTSIDE the traditional framework of the Church, having to work around the way things are to try and return them to how they should be.
Regrettably, yes, but it is not the first time in history: during the Arian heresy a majority of bishops either were heretics or condoned heresy. We made it then and we'll make it now, even if it is not pleasant.
Kudos on an excellent post!
Word on the Roman street is that one of the Ambassador’s top aides has moved to Rome - if not into the actual Ambassador’s Residence - with his . . . “partner.”
Luckily for Obama, the US Press has long-since stopped doing any research that could possibly tarnish the Idol’s gold-plating.
But the conservative new media, at least, should be checking these things out.
Not that the Obama Administration would EVER want to snub, embarrass or annoy the Holy See!
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