Obama names theologian Miguel Diaz as ambassador to Holy See

From the AP:

A Hispanic Roman Catholic theologian who was an adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign will be nominated to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, the White House announced Wednesday.

Miguel H. Diaz, 45, an associate professor of theology at St. John's University and the College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota, would be the first Hispanic to serve as ambassador to the Vatican since the United States and the Holy See established full diplomatic ties in 1984. Diaz was born in Havana.

The CNS Blog has the press release from Diaz's university. Articles of Faith has his White House bio. Apparently he consults for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. With this sort of association, it comes as no surprise to learn he is an Obama supporter ... and a supporter of Kathleen Sebellius.

I thought Patrick Archibold had a good line: "President Obama continues to build his Vichy Catholic government that pretends to be against abortion while supporting those who support it." (Vichy? Ouch.)

Michael Sean Winters jumps in with a typo: "The immediate takeaway is this. Diaz is a pro-life Democrat so his mere presence at the Vatican will disprove the contention of some conservatives that there is no such thing as a pro-life Catholic."

I presume Winters meant "pro-life Democrat." And instead of stereotyping what he claims "some conservatives" think (none that I've met, by the way), how about sticking with the case at hand. In other words, Diaz, who thinks Kathleen Sebellius (a woman who never met an abortion she wouldn't suppor) is "a woman of deep faith." Claiming such a person as Diaz is "pro-life", well, gets me scratching my head.

Whispers has good coverage of this nomination as well.

It will be interesting to see if Mary Ann Glendon, the former US Ambassador to the Holy See, will make any comment about Diaz's appointment tomorrow. If she does, I'll be there blogging and twittering it.