Originally published at The Catholic Thing
A change of presidential administrations typically leads to changes in U.S. diplomatic personnel abroad, especially at the ambassadorial level. This, in turn, leads to speculations, some of them zany, about the post of U.S. ambassador to the Holy See (typically mislabeled as “U.S. ambassador to the Vatican”). The U.S. ambassador to the Holy See represents one sovereign actor – the United States of America – to another sovereign actor, the Holy See. The U.S. ambassador’s role is to convey and explain his or her government’s views to the officials of the Holy See and, in turn, to explain the Holy See’s concerns to the United States government.
