Showing posts with label US-Vatican relations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US-Vatican relations. Show all posts

Sunday, January 23, 2022

Senate Confirms Joseph Donnelley As Ambassador To The Vatican

On Jan. 20, the U.S. Senate, by voice vote, confirmed Joseph Donnelley of Indiana to be U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. AP reports:

Donnelly is a Democrat who served six years in the U.S. House from a South Bend-area district before winning election to the Senate in 2012. He lost his 2018 reelection bid to Republican Mike Braun.

Donnelly has bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Notre Dame, where he has been a part-time professor while also working for the Washington law firm Akin Gump.

Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins called Donnelly “a person of deep Catholic faith and commitment to public service.”

 [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

Friday, October 29, 2021

Biden Meets With Pope Francis

As reported by CNN, President Joe Biden met for 90 minutes this morning with Pope Francis at the Vatican. The White House released a brief readout (full text) of the meeting, which said:

In his audience with Pope Francis today, President Biden thanked His Holiness for his advocacy for the world’s poor and those suffering from hunger, conflict, and persecution. He lauded Pope Francis’ leadership in fighting the climate crisis, as well as his advocacy to ensure the pandemic ends for everyone through vaccine sharing and an equitable global economic recovery.

After his audience with the Pope, Biden met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin. They discussed a variety of issues (White House readout), including advocacy for religious freedom world-wide.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Callista Gingrich Confirmed As Ambassador To The Vatican

According to AP, the U.S. Senate yesterday approved the nomination of Callista L. Gingrich to be Ambassador to the Holy See.  The vote was 70-23.  The new ambassador is the wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. She is  president of Gingrich Productions where she has produced documentaries, including one focusing on Pope John Paul II.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

First U.S. - Vatican Intergovernmental Agreement Signed-- To Prevent Tax Evasion

Yesterday the United States signed its first formal inter-governmental agreement with the Holy See-- an agreement to prevent tax evasion by U.S. citizens who conduct financial activities in the Vatican City State. Zenit reports that the agreement, also signed by the Holy See acting in the name and on behalf of the Vatican City State, implements requirements of the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) [background].

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Kerry Asks Vatican For Aid In Relocating Guantanamo Detainees

Catholic News Service reported that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in Rome yesterday, met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.  As part of their discussion, Kerry asked the Vatican for "support in the search for appropriate humanitarian solutions for the current detainees" at Guantanamo Bay so that the Obama Administration can move on its commitment to close the prison at Guantanamo.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

NYT Profiles Obama's Early Catholic Connections As Meeting With Pope Approaches

In anticipation of President Obama's March 27 visit to the Vatican, today's New York Times carries a long front-page article titled: The Catholic Roots of Obama’s Activism. Here is an excerpt:
[I]n the spring of 1987, Mr. Obama — himself not Catholic — was already well known in Chicago’s black Catholic circles. He had arrived two years earlier to fill an organizing position paid for by a church grant, and had spent his first months here surrounded by Catholic pastors and congregations. In this often overlooked period of the president’s life, he had a desk in a South Side parish and became steeped in the social justice wing of the church, which played a powerful role in his political formation.
This Thursday, Mr. Obama will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican after a three-decade divergence with the church. By the late 1980s, the Catholic hierarchy had taken a conservative turn that de-emphasized social engagement and elevated the culture wars that would eventually cast Mr. Obama as an abortion-supporting enemy....  A White House accustomed to archbishop antagonists hopes the president will find a strategic ally and kindred spirit in a pope who preaches a gospel of social justice and inclusion..... 
But the Vatican — aware that Mr. Obama has far more to gain from the encounter than the pope does, and wary of being used for American political consumption — warns that this will hardly be like the 1982 meeting at which President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II agreed to fight Communism in Eastern Europe.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Obama To Visit The Vatican In March

According to NBC News, the White House announced today that President Barack Obama will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican on March 27. The President's visit to the Vatican will be part of a trip to Europe which also involves meetings in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. A White House statement says in part: "The president looks forward to discussing with Pope Francis their shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality." Secretary of State John Kerry visited the Vatican on Jan. 14 to meet with his counterpart Secretary of State of the Holy See Pietro Parolin. (State Department press release.)

Sunday, December 08, 2013

Interview Published With New U.S. Ambassador To The Vatican

Last week Zenit published an interview (Part 1, Part 2) with Ken Hackett, the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Hackett, among other things, talked of his background, his goals as ambassador, and discussed the controversy surrounding the moving of the U.S. embassy from its original location to a site near the U.S. embassy to Italy. (See prior posting.)

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Planned Move of U.S. Vatican Embassy Stirs Conroversy

On Monday, the U.S. State Department held a conference call with reporters (full transcript) to explain its decision to move the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See to a location within the same compound in Rome that houses the U.S. Embassy to Italy and the U.S. Embassy to the United Nations offices in Rome.  As reported yesterday by Religion News Service, former U.S. ambassadors and representatives to the Vatican have charged that this is a downgrading. President Clinton's first ambassador to the Vatican, Raymond Flynn, has been particularly critical, telling the National Catholic Reporter last week:
It's not just those who bomb churches and kill Catholics in the Middle East who are our antagonists, but it's also those who restrict our religious freedoms and want to close down our embassy to the Holy See
However the State Department says there will be no reduction in diplomatic staff. Current U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Ken Hackett tells National Catholic Reporter that, if anything, the move will give the embassy greater stature. The State Department says the move is motivated by cost savings and serious security concerns.