Originally published at National Catholic Register
A Time magazine cover in February 2013 featured a black-and-white picture of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., staring into the distance with the caption, “The Republican Savior: How Marco Rubio became the new voice of the GOP.”
It was the kind of cover most politicians would kill for. But it made Rubio bristle.
“There is only one savior, and it is not me. #Jesus,” he posted on Twitter.
President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Rubio as secretary of state is another turning point in the senator’s rise during his quarter-century of public service, which has been marked by a defense of life and religious freedom, an aptitude for navigating complex political environments and a disarmingly open faith journey that saw him leave and return to the Catholic Church twice over. If confirmed, Rubio, who would be the nation’s first Latino secretary of state, will steer the nation through a tumultuous period in world history, one in which hot wars involving American allies and interests have broken out across the globe with another looming in the Asia Pacific.
Known as a rock-ribbed “peace through strength” conservative on foreign policy, Rubio’s aptitude for diplomacy was apparent during the highly publicized ebbs and flows in
