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 antiabortion 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 cochair
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. (Andrew Miga, AP)
