Distasteful ironies seem to be Caroline Kennedy's fate as she tries to follow her family's tradition of public service. After being smeared by New York's governor during her pursuit of Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, her appointment as US Ambassador to the Vatican now has reportedly been blocked by the Holy See because she supports abortion rights.
If true, the daughter of the man who broke through centuries of prejudice against his Church to become the first Catholic president is being deemed unsuitable to represent her country for views that would have no bearing on her duties as a US Ambassador.
When JFK ran, he assured voters he could reconcile his religious beliefs with his political duties, a position the Vatican did not find objectionable, but now his daughter is apparently being held to a different standard.
In January, I suggested: "The Obama Administration should ask her to serve as ambassador to Great Britain (as her grandfather did) or France or Ireland, where her intelligence and instincts, along with her Kennedy and Bouvier background, could be an important American asset...as a gracious ambassador to a generation of Europeans who have never known what it is like to love an American president."
The Vatican is apparently not the right place for that.
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the Vatican's purported position should make you wonder whether the U.S. should have an embassy in The Vatican. I don't think the small "country" of church bureaucrats merits an embassy. A consolate, maybe, but not an embassy.
I agree the U.K., France or Ireland would be a better posting for Caroline Kennedy.
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