By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Writer The Obama Administration is having difficulty finding a suitable pro-life candidate to represent his administration at the Vatican. The Vatican has rejected the three candidates put forward thus far because they are insufficiently pro-life. According to a report by Edward Pentin for Newsmax, Massimo Franco, author of a recently published book on U.S.-Vatican relations entitled Parallel Empires, the Obama administration is now looking for a professional diplomat rather than a political appointee because finding an authentically pro-life candidate in the Democratic party is proving impossible. Choosing a professional diplomat will be a break from tradition, however. All U.S. ambassadors to the Holy See since diplomatic relations were opened 25 years ago have been political appointees and pro-life. “However, in view of the absence of qualified Catholic candidates, insiders say another option could be for the administration to choose a non-Catholic pro-life candidate rather than a Catholic whose record on pro-life issues is at odds with Church teaching,” Pentin writes.  “There may be room for such an appointment and it could be a good choice,” Franco said, “but at the moment I can’t imagine it happening.” Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, left the post on Jan. 19. “Commentators say that unless an appointment is made by mid-April, the Obama administration could face the embarrassing possibility of having no ambassador in place when the president visits Italy in July for the G8 summit,” Pentin says. “That would make any encounter between Pope Benedict XVI and President Obama not impossible but unlikely.” Since taking office, President Obama has pushed through or proposed a long list of anti-life policies including the proposed rescinding of conscience rights for health care workers, the reversal of executive orders that will now allow federal funding to both overseas abortion providers and to embryonic stem cell research. In addition, Obama has nominated some of the most radical pro-abortion politicians and lawyers in the country to key positions in his administration, including the virulently pro-abortion Catholic Governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius to head the critical post of Secretary of Health and Human Services.  The Obama administration is also on opposing sides with the Vatican on the issue of homosexuality. Two weeks ago, the administration announced that it would formally endorse a U.N. statement calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality, a measure that former President George W. Bush refused to sign and that the Vatican also opposed. “To help clear up some of these disagreements, a meeting between the Pope and the President is seen by some as a matter of urgency, particularly in view of Obama’s campaign pledge to build consensus between both sides of the pro-life debate,” Pentin writes. “Failure to do so will confirm what some Vatican officials already suspect of Obama: that his talk of reaching out to all sides was empty talk, designed to deceive.” © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly/Women of Grace. http://www.womenofgrace.com