Program Overview

• Hosts: Ray Suarez, Deborah Amos and Elizabeth Arnold
• Original Airdate: May 2008

The Vatican enjoys a privileged and unique status as the only religion represented at the United Nations and dozens of other international bodies. At times this ruffles feathers when Church doctrine clashes with secular affairs of state. Still, the Church manages to tend its flock of more than one billion Catholics worldwide, while its legions of clergy and diplomats also carry on the faith’s tradition of ministering to global matters, by promoting development, advocating for religious freedom and building peace. On this edition of America Abroad, we’ll explore the Church’s enduring role as an international social and political actor.

Elizabeth Arnold travels to the Vatican to explore the Holy See’s foreign policy machinery in segment one.

In segment two, Ray Suarez traces the history of the Vatican’s evolving role in world affairs and examines Pope John Paul II’s role in the fall of communism in his native Poland.

In the final segment, Deborah Amos looks at the Catholic Church’s peace-building efforts in the troubled jungles of Colombia.

Guests on this program include:

Mary Ann Glendon, US Ambassador to the Holy See

Francis Campbell, British Ambassador to the Holy See

Father Thomas Reese, Senior Research Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University

Jon O’Brien, President of Catholics for Choice

Massimo Franco, political columnist for the Italian daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera

Father J. Bryan Hehir, Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at Harvard University

George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center

Dr. Bronislaw Geremek, a leader of the Polish Solidarity Movement

Richard Allen, former National Security Advisor to President Reagan

Jean-Noel Wetterwald, UN High Commissioner for Refugees representative in Colombia

Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga of Tunja, President of the Bishops’ Conference in Colombia

Bishop Fidel Leon Cadavid Marin of Quibdo