America’s ambassador to the Holy See says the two sides are working
to rebuild trust following the leak of alleged diplomatic cables
that caused embarrassment late last year.
“What brings us together is far, far, far more than what sets us
apart, and I want to focus on that," Ambassador Miguel H. Diaz told CNA
in a wide-ranging interview at his hilltop residence in Rome Jan. 19.
Ambassador Diaz said that during his 16 months in Rome he has seen
“significant signs that show the ongoing commitment of this President,
the White House, and our government in general to fostering and
deepening this relationship.”
He said the scandal of the alleged U.S. diplomatic cables, released
on the website WikiLeaks has not affected the Vatican-U.S. working
relationship.
According to an analysis by CNA,
more than 700 cables from the U.S. embassy to the Vatican were among
the 250,000 State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks.
To date, only a handful of them has been released. But some of those
have proven embarrassing, including one in which a U.S. embassy staffer
poked fun at the “poor communications culture” in the Vatican and
another in which Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone was
described as “yes man.”
The WikiLeaks affair has been a bump in the road in an otherwise easy
and low-key relationship between the Vatican and the administration of
U.S. President Barack Obama, during his first two years in office.
Ambassador Diaz is credited with running a smooth diplomatic
operation — especially considering that prior to this he has had no
previous diplomatic experience.
The 47-year old Cuban-American was a professor of theology at the
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in Minnesota when
the call came from the White House in May 2009, five months after
President Obama was inaugurated.
Reportedly, he was not first on the list for the position. However,
the president’s top choices had to be rejected because they favored
abortion or embryonic stem cell research — positions that would have
made their appointment appear to be a snub to the Vatican.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Ambassador Diaz in August 2009, and since
then he and his wife, also a theology professor, have been living with
their four children in the ambassador's residence atop Rome’s Janiculum
Hill.
When Pope Benedict XVI received Ambassador Diaz for the first time to
accept his credentials, he did so warmly.
But he made a point of
emphasizing the Church’s differences with the U.S. administration.
“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, as well as the protection of the right to conscientious objection
on the part of health care workers, and indeed all citizens,” the Pope
told the new ambassador.
Despite broad disagreements on basic policies, Ambassador Diaz said
he is focusing on the values and the interests the two sides share.
"I think it's important to recognize that there are differences,” he
said. “But I think it's important not to be paralyzed by those
differences. The things that we have in common far exceed the things
that divide us," said Ambassador Diaz.
As the ninth U.S. ambassador, Diaz said he is really "standing on the shoulders" of the "giants" that have gone before him.
Unofficial relations between the two states go back to the birth of
America, when President George Washington assured Pope Pius VI that the
Pope would have full freedom to appoint bishops in the new land.
It would take until President Ronald Reagan in 1984 for the U.S. to
establish its first official embassy here.
At that time, it was widely
perceived that the U.S. president saw the Vatican and then-Pope John
Paul II as an important ally in the fight against communism.
The embassy recently celebrated its 27th anniversary. Ambassador Diaz
has as a staff of 19 — a formidable presence for promoting U.S. foreign
policy at the world's smallest state.
"The size is really inversely proportional to the scope of
influence," said Ambassador Diaz.
“You can't just think of the Holy See
as boxed with the Vatican City walls. We have to think of it as this
vast network."
Since his Senate confirmation hearings, Ambassador Diaz has spoken of his vision for the embassy as one of “building bridges.”
And he has pursued that strategy during his 16-month tenure. He has
worked diligently to build relationships not only with Vatican
officials, but also with the wider institutions of the universal Church —
pontifical universities, religious communities, even hospitals,
non-profits and humanitarian agencies.
The embassy has sponsored several high-profile meetings to highlight areas of mutual interest.
An embassy-sponsored conference in 2009 brought professionals to the
city to raise awareness of the need to stop mother-child transmission of
AIDS.
The embassy co-sponsored a concert with the Church aid agency
Caritas to raise money for Haitian earthquake victims.
An embassy-sponsored conference at the Pontifical Gregorian
University last October encouraged members of different faith traditions
to come together in "building bridges."
At the event, the director of
the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships,
Joshua DuBois, gave the keynote address.
But Ambassador Diaz said much of his diplomatic work is done in
one-on-one conversations — what he called "diplomacy at the table"
during luncheons and dinners, and "targeted diplomacy" with Vatican
contacts through more formal channels.
The issues of concern to the U.S. and the Vatican are broad and far-reaching.
"One of the greatest challenges,” he said, was how the “human family”
is going to “reconcile” its “incredible diversity” of religions and
cultures. This diversity, he said, “increasingly threatens to tear us
apart.”
On that note, Ambassador Diaz called Pope Benedict’s annual speech to diplomats Jan. 10 “ambitious.”
The Pope used strong language to condemn religious discrimination and
persecution around globe, especially in the Middle East, North Africa
and China.
"The task of building bridges is essential if we are to bring about
reconciliation and peace, and if we are going to tackle ongoing problems
such as the trafficking of persons and basic violations of human
dignity — including violations for persons to exercise a right to
religious freedom," Ambassador Diaz said.
He sees a "bridge-building" opportunity in Pope Benedict's call for
world religious leaders to gather in Assisi next October to pray for
peace. It is fitting that such an encounter should take place in the
birthplace of St. Francis, whose name is associated with peace and
reconciliation.
In an "interconnected" world, St. Francis’ message that all things
are tied together is important, Ambassador Diaz said. The day of prayer
called by the Pope has the potential to "do what religion is intended to
do — bring people together and not drive them apart."
"In this interdependent world, civic leaders cannot act alone, no
nation can act alone, and the contribution of religious leaders is
essential in the building of peace, the defending of human dignity, the
fight against any type of abuse. And certainly the religious leaders
have a central role to play in that outgoing, noble task," Ambassador
Diaz said.
He identified ending human trafficking and promoting education and migration issues as the embassy's top priorities.
"There are so many different areas that wherever the dignity of the
human person is violated, that persons … and organizations associated
with the Church can help," he explained.
"I think that's where the effective work of building those bridges
and defending that dignity would come in, the day-to-day exercise of
this relationship."
He does not downplay the continued differences between the U.S. and
the Holy See on issues such as abortion, embryonic stem cell research,
the homosexual lifestyle, and the promotion of condoms for AIDS
prevention.
No diplomatic relationship finds both sides seeing eye-to-eye on
every issue, Ambassador Diaz noted. "That's the ideal, the ideal will
never be there."
He prefers to concentrate on his responsibility as President Obama's personal representative to the Holy See.
"As a person of integrity, I would not be sitting here if I did not
believe that there was a significant convergence in my ability to carry
out this duty here at the Holy See,” he said.
“I'm defending the dignity
of human persons in different ways. I am building bridges. And these
are fundamental tenets of this administration and fundamental tenets of
who I am as a person.”
He would like his time as ambassador to be remembered as one in which
U.S. foreign policy and the common interests of the Holy See were
united "to advance the common good of the human family."
"If I can do that, even if it's just in little ways, during my tenure
here, then I'll call it a success,” he said.
“I'll be happy that I did
my job, which is to answer the call — certainly of President Obama and
of my country, to serve it — and also the call of the human family and
the Church to advance the common good."
SIC: CNA/USA