Mary Ann Glendon

Marry Ann Glendon
United States Ambassador to Holy See
In office February 2008 – January 20, 2009
President	George W. Bush
Pope	Benedict XIV
Preceded by	Francis Rooney
Succeeded by	Miguel H. Díaz
Personal details
Born	(1938-10-07) October 7, 1938 Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Occupation	Diplomat, Professor
Religion	Roman Catholic

Mary Ann Glendon, J.D., LL.M. (born October 7, 1938) is the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a former United States Ambassador to the Holy See (February 2008 - January 2009). She teaches and writes on bioethics, comparative constitutional law, property, and human rights in international law. She is pro-life and "writes forcefully against the expansion of abortion rights."^[1]

Career

President George W. Bush and Laura Bush stand with 2005 National Humanities Medal recipient Mary Ann Glendon.

Glendon received her Bachelor of Arts, Juris Doctor, and Master of Comparative Law from the University of Chicago.^[2][3] She served on the 28th volume of University of Chicago Law Review.

Glendon is the author of Rights Talk; A Nation Under Lawyers, and A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1994, she was a signer of Evangelicals and Catholics Together, an ecumenical document aimed at rapprochement between Catholics and Evangelicals. Glendon became the first female President of the Roman Catholic Church's Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, when she was appointed by Pope John Paul II on March 9, 2004 (she was already a member of the academy since January 9, 1994).

In 1995, she was the Vatican representative to the international 1995 Beijing Conference on Women sponsored by the United Nations, where she contested the use of condoms for the prevention of HIV and AIDS. "The Holy See in no way endorses contraception or the use of condoms, either as a family planning measure or in HIV/AIDS prevention programs."^[4]

The National Law Journal named her one of the "Fifty Most Influential Women Lawyers in America" in 1998.

Glendon was appointed by President Bush to the President's Council on Bioethics. Her nomination as United States Ambassador to the Holy See was announced on 5 November 2007.^[5] The U.S. Senate voted to confirm her on December 19, 2007.^[6] She presented her Letters of Credence to Pope Benedict XVI on 29 February 2008, and resigned her office effective January 19, 2009.^[7]

On June 26, 2013 Pope Francis issued a chirograph naming Glendon a member of the Pontifical Commission of inquiry for the Institute for Works of Religion.^[8] Glendon, two cardinals, a bishop, and a monsignor are responsible for preparing an investigative report on the Vatican Bank.^[9][10]

Politics

Glendon is a supporter of Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election.^[11] She also supported Romney's campaign in the 2008 presidential election.^[1]

Glendon writes and serves on the advisory council for First Things, an ecumenical conservative journal that encourages a religiously informed philosophy for the ordering of society.

Laetare Medal Controversy

Glendon was selected by the University of Notre Dame as the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Laetare Medal but declined the award due to the university's controversial^[12] decision to host Barack Obama as its commencement speaker and bestow upon him an honorary degree.^[13] In light of Obama's strong pro-choice policies,^[14] Glendon considered Notre Dame's decision to be in violation of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' 2004 pronouncement that Catholic institutions should not give "awards, honors, or platforms" to "those who act in defiance of [Catholic] fundamental moral principles."^[15] Glendon also felt that the university was implicitly trying to use her acceptance speech to give the appearance of balance to the event and expressed concern about the "ripple effect" Notre Dame's disregard of the USCCB pronouncement is having on the nation's other Catholic schools.^[15]

She later received an award from the National Right to Life Committee at its Pro-Life Awards Dinner in October.^[16]

Mary McAleese Controversy

In October 2012 the former Irish President (and Catholic) Mary McAleese revealed that, on a state visit to the US in 1998, she was publically berated by Cardinal Bernard Law for her stance on the ordination of women. During a heated argument with McAleese and members of her delegation, the cardinal attempted to usher her into a room to listen to a lecture by Mary Ann Glendon on the church's views on women priests. McAleese rebuked him with the statement "I was the President of Ireland and not just of Catholic Ireland." ^[17]

Quotes

"What is clearly 'old-fashioned' today is the old feminism of the 1970s — with its negative attitudes toward men, marriage and motherhood, and its rigid party line on abortion."^[18]

See also

• George W. Bush Supreme Court candidates

References

External links

• Articles by Mary Ann Glendon in First Things
• Harvard Law School: Learned Hand Professor of Law Mary Ann Glendon
• glendonbooks.com: Professor Mary Ann Glendon
• Wall Street Journal: Commentary on U.S. Federal Marriage Amendment
• The President's Council on Bioethics: Biography of Mary Ann Glendon
• The Holy See: Mary Ann Glendon
• The Marian Library:Holy See's Final Statement at Women's Conference in Beijing
• University of Navarra: Mary Ann Glendon awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Navarra (in Spanish)
• Glendon's page at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
• The Pope’s New Feminism

v t e United States Ambassadors to the Holy See William A. Wilson 1984–1986 Frank Shakespeare 1986–1989 Thomas Patrick Melady 1989–1993 Raymond Flynn 1993–1997 Lindy Boggs 1997–2001 Jim Nicholson 2001–2005 Francis Rooney 2005–2008 Mary Ann Glendon 2008–2009 Miguel H. Díaz 2009–2012 Ken Hackett 2013–