Obama Vatican Ambassador Details Priorities Before Pope Mtg, Omits Abortion

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 6, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Obama Vatican Ambassador Details Priorities Before Pope Mtg, Omits Abortion

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 6
, 2009

The Vatican (LifeNews.com) — Miguel Diaz, the new Vatican ambassador for the administration of pro-abortion President Barack Obama, detailed his priorities in an interview shortly before meeting Pope Benedict XVI on Friday. Abortion and pro-life issues didn’t make the list even though the Pope urged Diaz to promote the pro-life ethic.

The Holy See, on Friday, accepted Diaz’ letters of credence as U.S. ambassador.

Afterwards, Diaz spoke with Vatican Radio prior to meeting with the leader of the Catholic Church.

Diaz said he would promote policies “common to our interests with respect to the Holy See and the United States."

They included rejection of religion as a means of violence, opposing terrorism, racial issues, and combating AIDS/HIV and human trafficking.

Though those are also important issues, reducing or opposing abortions failed to make Diaz’s list — something Tom McFeely of the National Catholic Register noticed.

"Conspicuous by its absence from Diaz’s list was any reference to the life issue, which the Holy Father specified as a key area of importance in his own remarks to Diaz," he noted.

In fact, Pope Benedict XVI had a message for the pro-Obama political activist whom Obama appointed to become his new Vatican ambassador.

Benedict wrote a letter to Minnesota-based Catholic college professor saying he hoped the relationship between the Holy See and the United States would "continue to be marked by fruitful dialogue and cooperation in the promotion of human dignity, respect for fundamental human rights" and the "cultivation of the values of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’"

"I think particularly of the need for a clear discernment with regard to issues touching the protection of human dignity and respect for the inalienable right to life from the moment of conception to natural death," he said.

Benedict urged Diaz to promote "the protection of the right to conscientious objection on the part of health care workers, and indeed all citizens."

"The Church insists on the unbreakable link between an ethics of life and every other aspect of social ethics," he reminded the Obama supporter.

Pro-life Catholics have had a reason to be concerned about Diaz because he was a member of Obama’s Catholic advisory team during the 2008 presidential campaign and helped cover up his pro-abortion record during the campaign.

In 2006, Diaz served as theological consultant to the Catholic Alliance for the Common Good.

The group eventually came under fire from Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, who said it had "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.”

Obama isn’t alone in earning Diaz’s support, as he also endorsed pro-abortion Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius and her nomination to become Obama’s health secretary.

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