Obama’s inbox may be full

 

Illustration by ABC News

The President-elect is getting congratulatory letters from all over the world. He noticed that Iranian president Ahmadinejad sent one of them, and he’ll put off attending to that one.

But he should take this letter from John Allen.

Mr. President-elect:

This letter is a plea to make U.S.-Vatican relations under your administration a priority, because of the enormous good in the world that could be accomplished by exploiting natural areas of common concern.

This isn’t just a nicety from a Catholic journalist. Allen lists plenty of good reasons here why Obama would want to foster a good relationship with the pope and the Vatican. (And by the way, it was no small number of bishops who wrote statements and letters before the election clarifying Church teaching on life, which countered Obama’s stated position.)

Just to get this out of the way up front…

It’s also clear to everyone that, barring a dramatic change of heart on your part, the White House and the Vatican will have deep differences during your term over “life issues” such as abortion and embryonic stem cell research.

However, Allen urges Obama not to allow that to “obscure four basic political realities”:

First, the Vatican and the United States need each other, whatever their differences may be in a given historical moment. What the United States is in the realm of “hard power,” meaning coercive military and economic might, the Vatican is in terms of “soft power,” meaning the capacity to stir action on the basis of ideas. Religion is a powerful motivating force in human affairs, and the pope has the biggest bully pulpit of any religious leader. It’s simply bad for everyone if these two forces are not on good speaking terms.

Second, it’s smart politics for you not to neglect the Vatican.

After all, look at how vigorously candidates seek ‘the Catholic vote’ in every election.

Third, the Vatican has a centuries-old diplomatic tradition of dealing with governments that, in one way or another, don’t follow the church’s line on certain matters. Despite those disagreements, Vatican diplomacy typically strives to keep lines of communication open and to seek common ground…

And…

Fourth, the Vatican is eager for good relations with the United States in particular, regardless of which party happens to be in power. The Vatican deeply admires the robust religiosity of America, in contrast with the pervasive secularism of much of Europe. The Vatican also believes that the United States is its most natural ally in promoting religious freedom and human dignity around the world.

That cannot be denied and should not be dismissed.

And then there’s this intriguing message, which ought to capture Obama’s attention:

You are a hero to much of Africa, giving you a degree of political capital on the continent that no other Western leader could rival. At the same time, 2009 is shaping up as a “Year of Africa” in global Catholicism. Over the next 12 months, Pope Benedict XVI will visit Cameroon and Angola; the African bishops will hold their plenary assembly in Rome; and bishops from all over the world will converge on Rome for a “Synod for Africa.” All this suggests the possibility of synergy between the world’s most important political and spiritual leaders — i.e., you and the pope — to promote peace and development for Africa, where the world’s most impoverished and abandoned people are today found.

Read Allen’s whole letter, and hope that President-elect Obama does, too.