In what is an intriguing irony for pro-life Catholic activists, President Barack Obama announced yesterday the official delegation representing him at a ceremony elevating two American Archbishops to Cardinals.
Obama will send Miguel Diaz, the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, as the lead delegate for the White House to the ceremony.
Diaz was a staunch defender of then-candidate Barack Obama despite his radical pro-abortion positions that violate the teachings of the Catholic Church. He will attend the elevation of Archbishop Raymond Burke, who has been one of the most outspoken Catholic leaders on the issue of pro-abortion politicians.
Vatican Chief Justice Archbishop Raymond Burke, formerly Archbishop of St. Louis, Missouri, will be honored with membership in the College of Cardinals, as designated by Pope Benedict XVI.
Diaz, who was a theology professor at St. John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict in Collegeville, Minnesota before becoming ambassador, is reportedly pro-life but he served as a member of Obama’s Catholic advisory board during his presidential campaign.
Obama isn’t alone in earning Diaz’s support, as he also endorsed pro-abortion Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius and her nomination to become Obama’s health secretary.
Diaz was one of several Catholic college professors to support her bid, which prompted Cardinal Newman Society president Patrick Reilly to say they were “giving comfort and aid to those whose stated goals are to advance policies directly opposed to Catholic teachings on life issues.”
“Given Gov. Sebelius’s abortion record and the concerns of her own bishop, it is sad that some of her strongest supporters are speaking out from their platforms on Catholic campuses,” he said.
Diaz was also a member of the speakers bureau for the fake pro-life Catholic organization Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a pro-Obama front group that was repeatedly criticized during the presidential election for deceiving voters on Obama’s pro-abortion position.
The group eventually came under fire from Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, who said it had “done a disservice to the Church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, undermined the progress pro-lifers have made, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue instead of fighting within their parties and at the ballot box to protect the unborn.”
Catholic writer Deal Hudson commented on Diaz’s nomination last year and said it would be “interesting” to watch Diaz as ambassador.
What is interesting now is that Diaz will watch as Burke climbs the ranks of the Catholic Church after speaking out more so than most Catholic leaders on the pro-abortion politicians Diaz supports.
Burke is known as the Catholic official who said 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry would not be allowed to receive communion at any church in St. Louis because of his staunch pro-abortion position.
Then, during the 2008 presidential election, Burke said all Catholics, including politicians, should not receive communion if they are pro-abortion.
Communion should be denied to pro-abortion politicians “until they have reformed their lives,” he said, in the interview with Radici Christiane magazine.
“Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily is a sacrilege,” he warned. “If it is done deliberately in mortal sin it is a sacrilege.”
Burke discussed “public officials who, with knowledge and consent, uphold actions that are against the Divine and Eternal moral law.”
“For example, if they support abortion, which entails the taking of innocent and defenseless human lives. A person who commits sin in this way should be publicly admonished in such a way as to not receive Communion until he or she has reformed his life,” he told the publication.
Burke also issued a challenge to ministers to make sure they are not providing the sacrament to pro-abortion lawmakers who have not repented from their position.
In his statement in 2008, Burke said not denying communion makes a bad witness to other Catholics and the public.
“If we have a public figure who is openly and deliberately upholding abortion rights and receiving the Eucharist, what will the average person think?” he explained. “He or she could come to believe that it up to a certain point it is okay to do away with an innocent life in the mother’s womb.”
