"Views mixed on Bush pick for envoy to Vatican." So reads a headline in
today's Boston Globe. With this headline, what you would expect to
find is that there are many people who object to the choice by President
Bush of Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard and an
eminent legal theorist, as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Yes, the
article quotes two people -- one, another law professor at Notre Dame, the
other an abortion rights activist -- criticizing the appointment.
What you discern from the article is that Glendon is a pious Catholic,
traditional in her views on family and on feminism, although her career
would be the envy of many feminists. There is something disgusting in the
position that these two men take: her fidelity to her faith disqualifies
her from an ambassadorial position. And to the Vatican, no less.
I met Professor Glendon once or twice. I suspect that she will make a
model emissary. She has her views, and they are close to those of the Holy
See itself. Still, she also knows what most of America thinks, and she
will not try to deceive the Vicar of Christ.