November 2, 2017: Del Rio News-Herald * Letter to the Editor * Callista Gingrich: US Ambassador to the Vatican
Letter to the Editor,
Callista Gingrich: US ambassador to the Vatican
The US Senate has confirmed Callista
Gingrich’s nomination to be ambassador to the Vatican.
Senators voted overwhelmingly, 70 to 23, to
approve her for the post. More than 20 Democrats joined Republicans in supporting
Gingrich. President Donald Trump had announced in May that he would nominate
her.
Gingrich, 51, a lifelong Catholic and a
former congressional aide, has been president of Gingrich Productions, a
multimedia production and consulting company in Arlington, Virginia, and of the
charitable non-profit Gingrich Foundation, since 2007.
She is also a
long-time member of the choir at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
Callista Gingrich is the wife of former
Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Newt Gingrich converted to Catholicism
to marry her.
During her
confirmation hearing Gingrich emphasized her desire to work with the Vatican to
protect religious freedom and human rights, fight terrorism and human
trafficking, and seek peaceful solutions to international crises.
In 2010, Gingrich's
company released the film "Nine Days That Changed the World" about Saint
Pope John Paul II's nine-day pilgrimage to Poland in 1979. The documentary
explained how the Pope invigorated the faith of the Polish people in Jesus
Christ during his pilgrimage there, and how the visit precipitated the fall of
Communism.
She also has
written the "Ellis the Elephant" children's American history series
and co-authored "Rediscovering God in America."
On the website of
Gingrich Productions, the couple noted that “we should remember the many
threats facing Christians today,” including “a growing secularism, which seeks
to place human desires ahead of God and His will,” and “radical Islamism” that
“seeks to destroy Christianity across the globe. But in the face of this evil,
we remember the words of Saint John Paul II, who throughout his papacy urged us
to, ‘Be not afraid’”.
Both the US and the
Vatican are committed to collaborating in fighting human trafficking, promoting
human rights and religious freedom.
Gringrich will be
the third woman to serve as US ambassador to the Vatican.
Marian
Casillas, Ed.D.
Del
Rio