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The New York Times
Harvard Prof Picked
for Vatican Post
By AP from
nytimes.com on the Web, November 6, 2007
WASHINGTON -- President Bush
plans to nominate Harvard University law professor Mary Ann Glendon to be his
new U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.
Glendon, 69, is an anti-abortion scholar and an opponent of gay
marriage who also has written on the effects of divorce and increased
litigation on society. Her 1987 book ''Abortion and Divorce in Western
Law'' was critical of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that
established a legal right to abortion.
The White House announced Monday that Bush will nominate Glendon to the post,
which requires Senate confirmation.
Glendon was appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1994 to the Pontifical Academy of
Social Sciences, a panel that advises the Roman Catholic church on social
policy.
Glendon has served as an adviser to the Vatican in several capacities. In
1995, she was the first woman to lead a delegation of the Holy See at the United
Nations Women's Conference in Beijing. She has also served on the
Pontifical Council for the Laity and as a consultant to the Pontifical Council
on the Family.
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney,
who last summer named Glendon to co-chair his campaign advisory committee on the
constitution and courts, praised the choice.
''She will serve our country with the honor and dignity we expect from those who
represent our country's values abroad. While I may have lost her trusted
counsel to our campaign, our country has gained an extremely gifted
ambassador,'' Romney said in a statement.
A native of Dalton, Mass., Glendon taught at Boston College and became a
visiting professor of law at Harvard in 1974. She became a full professor
there in 1986.
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