Douglas Kmiec Says Obama Will Have Great Relations With the Vatican!! (Updated)

Oh goodness. Kmiec is at it again. The Vatican Reporter John Allen has a column up Pro-Obama Catholic predicts 'very positive' ties with Vatican

Let say I think Kmiec thinks HE will have great relations with the Vatican since he might be up for the job as ambassador to the Holy See if God help us Obama gets it.

Here are a few parts

Douglas Kmiec, former legal counsel for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, also said that while he has given “no thought” to the prospect of serving as Obama’s ambassador to the Vatican, he would “never rule anything out.”

You go from supporting Romney to Obama I suspect you have thought of it

“An Obama presidency would open the door to what is frequently called the best-kept secret of the Catholic church, which is the balance of its social teaching,” Kmiec said. He argued that many of the Vatican’s social concerns are broadly congruent with the likely priorities of an Obama administration, including health care, a living wage, economic policies that promote the well-being of families, and environmental protection.

Notice he leaves out immigration where the Bush administration was on the side of the Vatican. It is not clear at all that Obama would be a blessing to the Vatican on the above points. In fact from what we read here and there the Vatican is scared to death what an Obama administration and their vote in the UN for instance would do for pro-life causes. Also defense of the family is part of Catholic Social Justice. Needless to say Obama and his efforts to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act is not going to be viewed with much excitement

Kmiec also pointed to a broad meeting of minds between Obama and the Vatican over the war in Iraq.
“The mindset that took us to war is not his,” Kmiec said. “He believes that our greatest strength as a country comes not just from military defense but international diplomacy, for the kind of understanding which the Vatican has repeatedly asked America to have of other cultures and other religions.”
For those reasons, Kmiec predicted, “relations between Benedict XVI and the Holy See under an Obama administration would be very, very positive.”

It is true Pope Benedict opposed the war. However it is not at all CLEAR not Pope Benedict was keen on the idea of rapid US withdrawal as Christians were being murdered in Iraq and creating a situation where there could be genocide on a mass scale. You know the Obama plan .Recall all those fearless predictions of how the Pope was going to the President a big ole public whopping on Iraq when he came to the USA. Never happened. Oh and lets be clear the Vatican has been very thankful of Bush's efforts on international diplomacy and efforts on many fronts.

Given Kmiec’s improbable emergence as a pro-life Republican making a Catholic case for Obama, some handicappers have speculated that, should the Democrats prevail, Kmiec would be a logical choice to represent the new administration to the Vatican. Ironically, Kmiec began the ’08 election season as an advisor to the Mitt Romney campaign alongside the current U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, Mary Ann Glendon, who at the time was still serving as a law professor at Harvard.
Kmiec said that he has not thought about the post, and that “it would take an awful lot of persuading for Mrs. Kmiec to leave her home” in California. Nonetheless, he said, “I never rule anything out.”

Thank you John Allen for pointing that out

Conceding that Obama does not have “a perfect Catholic position on abortion,” Kmiec nonetheless insisted that voting for the Democrat is “not inconsistent with the teaching of the church.”

Not perfect? It is 180 degrees in opposition!!!!

Expect some response to this. I think Kmiec now has open a can of worms and we might see some interesting responses in the next few days

UPDATE-
Mr Kmiec might be interested in the Pope Remarks to President Bush's Ambassador to the Vatican just months ago. He is very aware of them but hoping to God you are not. It would upset his meme. Here is just a part:

I cannot fail to note with gratitude the importance which the United States has attributed to interreligious and intercultural dialogue as a positive force for peacemaking. The Holy See is convinced of the great spiritual potential represented by such dialogue, particularly with regard to the promotion of nonviolence and the rejection of ideologies which manipulate and disfigure religion for political purposes, and justify violence in the name of God.

The American people's historic appreciation of the role of religion in shaping public discourse and in shedding light on the inherent moral dimension of social issues - a role at times contested in the name of a straitened understanding of political life and public discourse - is reflected in the efforts of so many of your fellow-citizens and government leaders to ensure legal protection for God's gift of life from conception to natural death, and the safeguarding of the institution of marriage, acknowledged as a stable union between a man and a woman, and that of the family.

Hmmm, I suspect if Prof Kmiec becomes Ambassador to the Vatican he can come up with creative ways to explain why there has been reverse in direction on this in an Obama administration. I am pretty sure the Pope and the Vatican are not going to find the spin he gives out very convincing.

Update II- By the way just a couple of days ago the Head of the Vatican "Supreme Court" stated in an Italian paper feared the Democrat Party was becoming a party of Death!!! I suspect this "Hope and Change" the Vatican is not on board with.

Update III- The Curt Jester has Stephen Douglass 1860 and American Papist has thoughts on Kmiec and other links