Catholic Obama Supporter Doug Kmiec Nominated for Ambassadorship to Malta

President Barack Obama has nominated Pepperdine Law Professor Doug Kmiec for an ambassadorship to the Catholic island nation of Malta. The appointment is a controversial one since Kmiec had been instrumental in persuading Catholics to vote for Obama in the 2008 presidential election, saying Obama was the “Catholic” candidate, despite his position on abortion and other key moral and social issues.

According to Catholic News Agency, Kmiec had been one of three names informally submitted and then rejected as possible ambassadors to the Holy See back in April. A Vatican official told CNA that the Holy See would not accept candidates with positions favoring abortion, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, or same-sex “marriage,” and that Kmiec’s support of embryonic stem-cell research had killed his chances to represent the US at the Vatican.

Instead the Obama administration enlisted Miguel Diaz to represent the US at the Vatican, although Diaz has yet to be confirmed to the post by the US Senate.

Kmiec further complicated his relationship with the Catholic Church in May by proposing that “marriage” should be reduced to simply a religious understanding, and that state should instead support a “civil license” that can include heterosexual and homosexual relationships. That conflicts with a 2003 directive from Cardinal Ratzinger, then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and now reigning pontiff, who declared “clear and emphatic opposition [to same-sex marriage-like unions] is a duty” incumbent upon all Catholics in public life.

Obama nominated Kmiec along with four other appointments to ambassadorships in Mongolia, Burkina Faso, Swaziland, and the Netherlands.

“I am confident that these fine individuals will represent our nation abroad with distinction, and strengthen our diplomatic efforts to meet 21st century challenges. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead,” said the President.

Obama has recently drawn fire from members of the American diplomatic corps and the press for his rather high profile conscription of donors and influential supporters of his presidential campaign into key ambassadorships, instead of resorting first to career diplomats.

“It’s an 18th-century practice we are continuing which no other major democratic country does,” Ronald Neumann, a veteran ambassador and leader of the American Academy of Diplomacy told Agence-France Presse. “It’s not ‘change you can believe in,’ but it’s not terribly surprising,” lamented Neumann.

AFP cites the appointment of Obama donor Louis Susman, a former Citigroup banker in Chicago, as ambassador to London, and two major California fundraisers, Charles Rivkin, former producer of the children’s show, “The Muppets,” as ambassador to France, and Silicon Valley lawyer John Roos as ambassador to Japan, as several examples of the practice.

The appointment of Kmiec is sure to generate some controversy as Malta as well. The country has one of the strongest pro-life laws in the European Union and is one of the most strongly Catholic countries in the world. If Malta accepts the appointment of Kmiec, the US Senate will conduct a confirmation hearing before voting to confirm him to the ambassadorship.

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