Vatican

Dr. Miguel Diaz, a professor of theology at St. John’s University in Collegeville, was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday to become ambassador to the Vatican.

Miguel Diaz, a Collegeville, Minn., professor, has been nominated by President Obama to serve as ambassador to the Vatican. Diaz, a theology professor at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict, supported Obama’s presidential campaign and that fact, say anti-abortion activists, means he cannot be pro-life.

While Catholic bishops and priests can hear confessions about sins as severe as murder or genocide, the Vatican’s 830-year-old Apostolic Penitentiary is “reserved for crimes which are viewed by the Church as even more serious,” writes the UK’s Telegraph. In Rome this week, this secretive “tribunal of conscience” held a two-day panel [...]