Moonies, and Catlicks, and Kennedys. Oh My!

While I don't know how much to trust The Washington Times -- after all, it is owned by the Moonies -- this story is generating a bit of heat. Referring to an Italian journalist, it claims that the Vatican has rejected three of the Obama admin's proposed ambassadors to the Vatican. The reason: all three were Catlick, but they were all pro-choice. (The Vatican denies that it has rejected any one, but then on the trustworthy-scale, I'd rate the Moonies and the Catlick Church about even.)

An outfit called Americans United for Separation of Church and State is, understandably, not pleased.

When U.S.-Vatican ties were proposed during the Reagan administration, Americans United vigorously opposed the move and warned that there would be problems down the line. It just wasn’t right, AU argued, for the U.S. government to have formal diplomatic relations with a church. . .

Americans United tried to raise some of these issues in court, challenging the diplomatic exchange on church-state grounds. Unfortunately, a federal appeals court refused to deal with the issue and dismissed the lawsuit on a technicality, saying AU did not even have the right to even bring the case.

So now it appears that not only must the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican be Catholic, they must oppose legal abortion as well. I wonder what other qualifications a potential ambassador must meet? Must he or she oppose same-sex marriage as well? Can he or she be divorced? Will someone check up on the candidate to make certain he or she attends mass every week?

Imposing such qualifications on ambassadors would seem to violate the clear provisions of Article VI of the Constitution, which bans religious tests for federal office.

I just investigated and holy crap! Canada has an ambassador to the Holey Sea too! Who knew? (Paging deBeauxOs . . . )

Today, Good Friday, the rumour mill has coughed up the fourth candidate for the US job -- Caroline Kennedy. Somehow, I don't think His Poopiness will be any better pleased, even if she is a celeb of sorts.

UPPITY-DATE: The Pope says 'nope' to Caroline.