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The past few years have seen cordial but cooling relations between the United States and the Vatican. Since President Obama took office, he has visited the Vatican just once, and the administration has demonstrated little more than a perfunctory interest in the Holy See's diplomatic role in the world. This is a lost opportunity at a critical time for America.U.S. foreign policy has much to gain from its relationship with the Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church. No institution on earth has both the international stature and the global reach of the Holy See — the "soft power" of moral influence and authority to promote religious freedom, human liberties, and related values that Americans and our allies uphold worldwide.
President Reagan established full diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1984 because, among other reasons, he realized that he could have no better partner than Pope John Paul II in the fight against communism -- and he was right. The administration of George W. Bush continued to expand these relations, even in difficult times while engaged in a conflict in Iraq of which the Holy See had strongly and vocally disapproved. Before President Obama's recent appointment of Ken Hackett as the next U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, there was growing speculation that the administration was considering completely eliminating the diplomatic mission, or reducing it to an appendage of the Embassy in Rome.While the Obama administration has been in conflict with the Catholic Church on a range of issues from abortion to contraception, it is clearly in America's national interests to strengthen diplomatic ties with the Holy See to advance our interests around the world. Read more (www.usatoday.com)
Read several authors' thoughts on papal Rome's history.
This article highlights quotes from historical and Catholic sources proving the Papacy's aggressive nature.
An Italian mystic. A minister to a British king. An Augustine monk. A Swiss farmer's boy. What do these men have in common? They were used by God in powerful ways to bring about the Protestant Reformation. Enter into the lives of these ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
Inspiration for these articles comes from Gideon and Hilda Hagstoz' Heroes of the Reformation