Four years later, Vatican takes a different approach toward Obama

cns ^ | November 9, 2012 | Francis X. Rocca

[NYer]

A woman arrives early to vote at a polling place at the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine in Washington on Election Day, Nov. 6. (CNS/Nancy Phelan Wiechec)

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The day after Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, hailed his election as a "choice that unites," exemplifying America's ability to "overcome fractures and divisions that until only recently could seem incurable." Pope Benedict XVI sent the president-elect a congratulatory telegram the same day, noting the "historic occasion" of his election.

Four years later, the Vatican's reaction to Obama's re-election had a markedly different tone.

"If Obama truly wants to be the president of all Americans," said L'Osservatore Nov. 7, "he should finally acknowledge the demands forcefully arising from religious communities -- above all the Catholic Church -- in favor of the natural family, life and finally religious liberty itself."

Speaking to reporters the same day, the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, voiced hope that Obama would use his second term for the "promotion of the culture of life and of religious liberty."

The statements alluded to Obama policies favoring legalized abortion, same-sex marriage and a plan to require nearly all health insurance plans, including those offered by most Catholic universities and agencies, to cover sterilizations and contraceptives, which are forbidden by the church's moral teaching.

The insurance mandate in particular, which U.S. bishops have strenuously protested for the past year, has proven an even greater source of division between the church and the Obama administration than their previous disagreements and threatens to aggravate tensions between Washington and the Vatican during the president's second term.

From the beginning of Obama's presidency, his support for legalized abortion and embryonic stem-cell research inspired protests by the church and controversy within it. Some 80 U.S. bishops publicly criticized the University of Notre Dame for granting Obama an honorary degree in 2009.

Yet the Vatican itself remained largely aloof from such disputes, at least in public statements, and cooperated with the Obama administration on such common international goals as assisting migrants, working against human trafficking and preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

But seeing a threat to the freedom of the church itself, the Vatican changed its approach and chose to address matters more directly.

In January, Pope Benedict told a group of visiting U.S. bishops that he was concerned about "certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion," through "concerted efforts ... to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices."

Any hopes that the administration might change its policy to the satisfaction of the church grew faint as the year wore on and the election drew nearer, to the increasingly vocal frustration of several U.S. bishops.

Two days before Americans went to the polls, the papal nuncio to the U.S. made it clear how urgent a priority the nation's religious liberty had become at the highest levels of the universal church.

Speaking at the University of Notre Dame Nov. 4, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano devoted most of a speech about "religious freedom, persecution of the church and martyrdom" to the situation of the United States today.

"The menace to religious liberty is concrete on many fronts," Archbishop Vigano said, noting the insurance mandate, anti-discrimination policies that require Catholic adoption agencies to place children with same-sex couples, and mandatory public school curricula that present same-sex marriage as "natural and wholesome."

Recalling persecution of Catholics in fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, the archbishop said that the "problems identified ... over six decades ago that deal with the heavy grip of the state's hand in authentic religious liberty are still with us today."

A government need not be a dictatorship in order to persecute the church, the nuncio said, quoting the words of Blessed John Paul II that a "democracy without values easily turns into openly or thinly disguised totalitarianism."

If the mere timing of his speech was not sufficient to underscore its political implications, Archbishop Vigano concluded by lamenting the support of Catholic politicians and voters for laws and policies that violate church teaching.

"We witness in an unprecedented way a platform being assumed by a major political party, having intrinsic evils among its basic principles, and Catholic faithful publicly supporting it," he said. "There is a divisive strategy at work here, an intentional dividing of the church; through this strategy, the body of the church is weakened, and thus the church can be more easily persecuted."

Jesuit Father Gerald P. Fogarty, a professor of history at the University of Virginia and an expert on U.S.-Vatican relations, said it is extremely rare for a papal diplomat to comment publicly on a host country's politics in such a way. The closest thing to a precedent in the U.S., Fogarty said, occurred nearly a century ago, during the Vatican's efforts to persuade belligerent nations to end World War I.

The archbishop's speech would seem to suggest that the Holy See has made religious liberty in the U.S. an issue in its diplomatic relations with Washington. Yet Miguel H. Diaz, U.S. ambassador to the Vatican since 2009, said that the disagreements between the church and the Obama administration over the insurance mandate have not interfered with his efforts to cooperate with the Vatican on areas of common concern.

Asked whether such compartmentalization would be possible during Obama's second term, Diaz, who will step down in mid-November, voiced hope that current tensions, including the dispute over the insurance mandate, might be resolved soon.

"Perhaps my successor will not have the same kinds of issues" to contend with, he said, "because that person will likely have a whole set of different challenges."

[GeronL]

The Catholic Church is insane if they think Obama cares about unity. He was running around talking about revenge with a pastor who says all whites are going to hell.

Why would the Vatican endorse that?

[NYer]

Look at the contrast in this report:

Speaking to reporters the same day, the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, voiced hope that Obama would use his second term for the "promotion of the culture of life and of religious liberty."

From the Mirror of Justice web site: Jesuit 'Theologian' praises same-sex marriage victories - Withering on the vine…

Two days before Americans went to the polls, the papal nuncio to the U.S. made it clear how urgent a priority the nation's religious liberty had become at the highest levels of the universal church.

Speaking at the University of Notre Dame Nov. 4, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano devoted most of a speech about "religious freedom, persecution of the church and martyrdom" to the situation of the United States today.

I have googled the papal nuncio and there is NO media coverage of this speech. Was anything from that speech communicated to practicing catholics?

IMHO, there is no cohesion in the US Catholic Church. Mixed messages, winks & nods on moral issues, generate confusion in the electorate. Either they all speak with one voice or remain silent.

[vladimir998]

It didn’t. The problem is the Vatican tries way too hard to find something positive to say - even when there is NOTHING positive to say.

[firebrand]

Because they don’t pay attention. They don’t read the conservative media, like FR!

[firebrand]

I might add that although the Church’s point is a grave and important concern, they didn’t wake up on all the other abridgments of freedom until their own ox was gored.

[fatnotlazy]

Technically, the Catholic Church does not endorse candidates, but I'm 2008, our local clergy pushed their congregations to vote for Obama. He was all but hailed as the Second Coming of the Messiah. I remember thinking these clergymen were going to one day regret their blind support for this monster.

This year, not a bit of support for Obama. Wonder why.

[livius]

The Vatican is facing the age-old problem, Caesar trying to take over God.

BXVI knows what’s going on, and so do a lot of bishops, even in the US. But others would be perfectly happy with the New Improved American Patriotic Catholic Church, where Obama is a Henry VIII figure and the US president is forever after the head of the American Catholic Church. Along,of course, with being the caliph of the new caliphate...

There will be many treasonous bishops here, and they may not all be the ones you would expect. I read somewhere that the people being led out to martyrdom in Spain under the communists were not necessarily the people anybody would have dreamed of, while some of the more aggressive people had recanted and were worshipping at the feet of the left, and that this is common in periods of active martyrdom. It’s not always the people you’d think.

The faithful bishops just have to keep on preaching and the faithful laypeople and priests just have to keep on doing what they do.

[NYer]

Technically, the Catholic Church does not endorse candidates, but I'm 2008, our local clergy pushed their congregations to vote for Obama.

Mercifully, I was spared from that in our parish. Just curious, how did they broach the elections: spoken message or literature or both?

[GeronL]

So, Obama is the anti-Christ then.

[Tax-chick]

... voiced hope that Obama would use his second term for the "promotion of the culture of life and of religious liberty."

That's not "hope," that's hawg-stupid delusional wishful thinking.

[Gay State Conservative]

If the Vatican thinks that Osama Obama has even the slightest trace of a conscience or has anything but contempt for those who do they are *very* sadly mistaken.

[Jacquerie]

Hmmm, the Church and Ronaldus Magnus took down the Polish commies. I wonder if our regime and society are corrupt enough for a similar push.

[fatnotlazy]

Didn't see anything in writing, but definitely in sermons. Obama was going to do wondrous things. Ha!

Obamacare really tore it. The Church found out it would be forced to provide and pay for birth control and abortion. Something most of the rest of us knew would happen.

The Church foolishly put its hope and trust in a false idol. Now it and its congregants are finding out how costly their folly was.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

The Vatican has been infiltrated to a degree most cannot fathom. The Catholic Church (the Bride of Christ) was the natural enemy of the satanic communists, and thus it was their first and foremost target.

[GBA]

The Church appears to have a crisis of faith, followed by a crisis of leadership.

This is an opportunity for restoration!

A crisis is good for soul searching, which can lead to a restoration of faith, which could lead to a restoration of worthy Scriptural leadership by example and experience.

Or not, and instead a continuation of the societal slide and fall from grace the Church is a major contributor to thanks to its abdication from said leadership as it watered down its obedience and dedication to the truths it once stood for, or so I once believed it stood for.

We are confused. The messages are mixed as we now embrace the sin as passionately as we are instead to forgive the sinner.

[windsorknot]

The best approach to 0bama is to turn around and run as fast as you can.

[verga]

IMHO, there is no cohesion in the US Catholic Church. Mixed messages, winks & nods on moral issues, generate confusion in the electorate. Either they all speak with one voice or remain silent.

And when I wrote a letter to the editor of the Virginian Catholic wondering if the Bishop was going to take a firm stand on these issues the letter never managed to get published. BXVI has to take a firm stand with CINO bishops and tell them to tow the line or get out. We do not need tepid Catholics or Bishops.

[workerbee]

2008, our local clergy pushed their congregations to vote for Obama. He was all but hailed as the Second Coming of the Messiah.

Not in mine.

Though at that time, they were not forcefully against him either, as they were this year.

[sitetest]

The American bishops by and large hungered for the victory of the anti-Christ in 2008, despite the anti-Christ’s total embrace of the holocaust of unborn children to his god, Moloch.

Now, they are less sure of him because he will make them pay for contraceptives.

Camel... gnat.