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If Rome sees Obama's policies as being as dangerous as communism was in Poland, then it may do something

Obama Against Pope Benedict: A Case of Diplomacy and Betrayal



Now that the recent controversy over contraception and health insurance between US Catholics and Obama has left the front pages, many in the media think things will go on as usual between the Vatican and the Obama administration. They couldn't be more mistaken.
The problem the Obama administration now has is not just one of a simple misunderstanding between some religious believers and an administration policy. The problem pits the head of one state against another. The Obama administration has seriously underestimated the rift that now exists between Washington, DC and the Vatican. Because the Vatican is itself a state, it is cautious about its involvement in the affairs of another state. Realizing what Stalin once asked, "How many divisions has the Pope?" is a political fact of life, the Vatican can not make its point by the exercise of military power. It must resort to diplomacy and other not so obvious means. But diplomacy between the Vatican and the Obama administration has failed. The key to successful diplomacy is trust and keeping one's word. The Obama administration went back on its word in regard to the birth control issue, and that is the most grievous sin that a state can commit.

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The disagreement between Pope Benedict XVI and Obama may soon look like a rematch between David and Goliath, the tiny Vatican against the mighty Washington, DC bureaucracy. Breitbart TV links to a report where, "Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan shot back at President Obama's birth control mandate..." "While in the South Bronx to bless a library, the Archbishop of New York City had sharp words for President Obama. "The federal government should do what it's traditionally done since July 4, 1776, namely back out of intruding into the internal life of a church." More than just backing off, Townhall.com reports, "Archbishop Dolan feels betrayed after his meeting with the president on the issue late last year." Betrayal is not a good thing between states and their diplomats. When the Chicago Sun-Times reports the normally easygoing Cardinal George as saying, "We cannot--and will not--comply with this unjust law," You know trouble between the Vatican and the Obama administration lies ahead. The Sun-Times reporter adds, "The cardinal...is vehemently opposed to the new Obama administration rule requiring religious organizations to include contraceptive health insurance coverage." The Vatican may suspect that whatever so-called compromise offered by the Obama administration and US Catholics over insurance and contraception will change for the worse if Obama is reelected. The Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI have every reason to get involved in US politics to see to it this does not happen. The Catholic Church, next to the United Nations, is the only really viable international institution in the world. It is much better organized that either the Democrat or Republican Party in the United States. If the Vatican decides it wants to throw its moral weight around and get involved in the US presidential election, the Obama administration has cause to worry. Pope Benedict XVI is well aware that US Catholics voted 54 per cent for Obama in the last election. He also knows that many US Catholics do not follow the Church's teaching on contraception and abortion, or that the Church's stance on illegal immigration is not popular with US conservatives, but these are not going to be the issues. Susan Hogan, a writer for the Star/Tribune claims Catholic bishops are crying foul, but the Catholic faithful support the president's decision. Hogan writes, "A majority of U.S. Catholics support President Obama's decision to require religious institutions to include birth control in health insurance plans...A poll by the Public Religion Research Institute in Washington, D.C., found that support among Catholics (58 percent) is higher than that of the American public overall (55 percent)." In spite of this survey, Cardinal George reminds us, "What isn't always understood is that the Bishops of the Church make no attempt to speak for all Catholics...The Bishops speak for the Catholic and apostolic faith, and those who hold that faith gather around them. Others disperse." The Bishops see that underlying issue here is not a survey or even free contraception. It is Obama's audacity in telling Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic faithful what to do. For most Roman Catholics, with the exception of the Holy Spirit, no one should tell the Pope what to do. Furthermore, Obama's audacity extends beyond the issue of the separation of church and state. We can imagine how his policy towards Israel may worry the Vatican as well. The Vatican is a lot closer to the Iranian nuclear threat than Washington, DC. Certainly, there are those in the Curia who preferred the status quo under George Bush than the Arab Spring furthered by Obama's policies. Some say the Vatican won't get involved in the internal affairs of another state. They argue that the Catholic Church in the United States has long ago made a pact with the Democrat Party that is difficult to break. This pact is especially the case in Obama's so-called hometown, Chicago. In spite of this, the history of the Catholic Church argues otherwise. The Church's struggle against communism and socialism offers us the contemporary example of Poland. In Poland, the Catholic Church played a central role in the fall of communism. Brian Porter of the University of Michigan writes," There is no doubt that the Roman Catholic Church played an enormous social, political, and cultural role in the Polish Peoples Republic, and the fall of Communism would certainly have played out differently were it not for the Church's involvement." Porter continues, "When Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow became Pope John Paul II in 1978, it was immediately obvious that life would never be the same for the Communist authorities in Poland. Indeed, some have credited him with playing the key role in toppling Communism." If Rome sees Obama's policies as being as dangerous as communism was in Poland, then it may do something. The time has come when the universal Church may have to get involved in a particular state, if the promise of religious freedom is to be defended in the United States. Whatever Rome does may be limited and kept from public view. The United States is not predominantly a Catholic country the way Poland is. Depending on what course Vatican officials want to follow, an overt or covert one, by disrespecting the Pope and Cardinal-designate Dolan, Obama risks Rome will work against in his reelection.


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Robert Klein Engler -- Bio and Archives

Robert Klein Engler lives in Omaha, Nebraska and sometimes New Orleans. Mr. Engler holds degrees from the University of Illinois in Urbana and The University of Chicago Divinity School. Many of Robert’s poems, stories, and paintings are set in the Crescent City. His long poem, “The Accomplishment of Metaphor and the Necessity of Suffering,” set partially in New Orleans, is published by Headwaters Press, Medusa, New York, 2004. He has received an Illinois Arts Council award for his “Three Poems for Kabbalah.” Link with him at Facebook.com to see examples of his recent work. Some of Mr. Engler’s books are available at amazon.com..


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