When Mary Ann Glendon leaves her post as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican Jan. 19, she'll end a term that was the briefest on record yet one of the most active.Since her arrival in Rome last February, Glendon has been kept busy with a trip by Pope Benedict XVI to the United States in April, a return visit to the Vatican by President George W. Bush in June, five major embassy-sponsored conferences and the daily rounds of diplomatic obligations at one of the world's premier listening posts.
In early December, she was co-hosting a Rome symposium on "Philanthropy and Human Rights," which featured nine expert speakers from around the world. Like many of the embassy's events, its editorial line largely reflected the Bush administration views on social and economic questions.
Glendon is unabashedly proud of having served under Bush, and she believes the last eight years have seen a convergence of U.S. and Vatican positions in such areas as humanitarian assistance, the role of faith-based institutions, religious freedom and the place of religion in civil society.
"How lucky I've been to have served here at a time when relations between the United States and the Holy See have been so close and productive," she said in an interview with Catholic News Service.
The pope's U.S. trip in April, she said, was particularly interesting to her because the pontiff made a point of praising the American model of religious freedom. Sometimes described as "positive secularism," it's a model that gives religious values a significant voice in the public square, rather than excluding them on the grounds of church-state separation.
That's a subject that's been on Glendon's mind for years as an academic. She has warned that this American model is "fighting for its life" today against persistent efforts to limit religion's influence on government.
It just happens that the American model of religious freedom is also the topic of the U.S. Embassy's last big conference under Glendon, to take place Jan. 13 in the presence of other diplomats accredited to the Holy See and Vatican officials.
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(Source: CTHUS)