The Valley Catholic
in the church/State
November 5, 2013
Pope Francis receives Kenneth Hackett, new U.S. envoy to Vatican
By Francis X. Rocca
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Presenting his
credentials to Pope Francis, Kenneth
F. Hackett officially took over as U.S.
ambassador to the Holy See Oct. 21,
filling a role that had been vacant for
nearly a year.
“The United States and the Holy See
have converging interests that span a
broad range of issues” including “human rights and social justice,” Hackett
wrote the same day, in the first post on
his official ambassador’s blog.
“We both work to make a difference
on a range of important global issues
such as trafficking in persons, interreligious dialogue, conflict resolution,
food access and security, HIV/AIDS
and care for the environment,” wrote
Hackett, a former president of Catholic
Relief Services, U.S. bishops’ overseas
relief and development agency.
The United States had not had an
ambassador at the Vatican since November 2012, when Miguel H. Diaz
resigned and left Rome to become
professor of faith and culture at the
University of Dayton in Ohio.
During Diaz’s tenure, relations
between Washington and the Vatican
were marked by tension, particularly
over the Obama administration’s plan
to require that all heath insurance
plans, including those offered by most
Catholic institutions, cover sterilizations and contraceptives, which are
forbidden by Catholic moral teaching.
“There will be times when the administration position differs from the
Kenneth F. Hackett, new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, presents his letters of credential
to Pope Francis during meeting at the Vatican Oct. 21. Hackett, retired president of Catholic
Relief Services, began his role Oct. 21, filling a position that had been vacant for nearly a
year. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano)
Holy See,” Hackett said in August, “But
I am going to look for -- as many of my
predecessors did -- those opportunities
where we can come together and find
strength in collaboration, coincidence
of interests.”
Hackett is a former president of CRS,
the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency, which he first joined
in 1972 after a post-college stint with
the Peace Corps in Ghana. He retired
as president of CRS in December 2011.
The new ambassador is also a
former North American president of
Caritas Internationalis, the confederation of humanitarian agencies of the
Catholic Church, and a former member
of the board of the Pontifical Council
Cor Unum.
13
Pope authorizes leave
of absence for German
‘luxury bishop’
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis
has authorized a leave of absence
for a German bishop at the center of
controversy over expenditures for his
residence and diocesan center.
“A situation has been created in
which Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartzvan Elst currently cannot exercise his
episcopal ministry,” said a statement
Oct. 23 from the Vatican press office.
Pope Francis, after being “continually, broadly and objectively
informed” about the situation in the
Diocese of Limburg, has authorized
“a period of leave outside the diocese,”
effective immediately, the statement
said.
The bishop has been at the center
of controversy for months over the
remodeling and building project in
Limburg, which is estimated to have
cost about $40 million. German media
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