The News Roundup - July 3, 2009

From The Irish Times

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama wants to visit Ireland and at some future stage would “definitely” plan to come here, newly appointed US ambassador to Ireland Daniel M Rooney has said.

Mr Rooney presented his letters of credence to President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday, accompanied by his wife, Patricia, and grandchildren Dan and Meghan. Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin was also in attendance.

In a press conference afterwards at a Dublin hotel, Mr Rooney said he had discussed the prospects for an Irish visit with Mr Obama: “Well I know that he wants to come. When things settle down, he definitely would plan it.”

Mr Rooney said they had discussed the possibility that Mr Obama could include Ireland on the schedule for “one of his trips to, you know, Europe or maybe the Far East or somewhere, if he could come back this way it would be good”.

But the ambassador was reluctant to speculate on the timing of any presidential visit: “His schedule right now is so full it’s difficult to see when it would be.”

Mr Rooney was vague about the prospects for a bilateral arrangement on immigration between the US and Ireland, similar to the E3 visa available to Australian college graduates on a two-year renewable basis.

“I think right now with the situation that exists with immigration generally for America, it’s hard to pinpoint that you’re going to do something for just one country,” he said.

Explaining the background, he said: “Congress is going to debate this and they have to look at it in its entirety, you can’t just make one rule for Ireland as you can imagine. But there is interest there, there is interest, we do understand the issues.

“I just arrived so I have not talked to the Government about this at all, and will do so, and talk to our own people. I have had some conversations with the people at the State Department and things like that, and in the Congress,” he said.

With regard to Mr Obama’s plan to tighten up the domestic tax requirements for US companies investing in other countries such as Ireland, Mr Rooney said: “Well, I think that they have to pay their taxes. What those taxes would be, of course, has to be looked at, has to be voted on by the Congress and signed by the president.”

The ambassador said he had no views as to whom the Obama administration should appoint to succeed Paula Dobriansky as US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland. “Not really,” he said, but added that the embassy would work with whoever the president chose for the job.

Clearly relishing his new appointment, Mr Rooney said: “I’m very pleased to be here, I’m honoured that President Obama would select me to be the ambassador and I have great feel and regard for Ireland, have had for a long time, so it’s terrific to be here.”

Despite his long connections with Ireland and the Rooney family’s roots in Newry, Co Down, he reminded his listeners that his first duty was to the president: “Let’s say this, I’m like St John the Baptist, I bring the message.”

The ambassador addressed a function organised by the American Chamber of Commerce yesterday where, according to a supplied script, he urged his audience to “work closely with institutions of higher education as an investment in the future”.

Well-known in the US as chairman of the current Super Bowl champions the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mr Rooney was one of the founders of the American Ireland Funds for the promotion of peace, and has also funded the annual Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.

From USA Today
Did we know that President Obama gets a daily devotional prayer sent to his Blackberry each morning?

It's one of the tidbits that emerged at the tail end of a roundtable with religion reporters in advance of his trip to Rome next week. He met with seven reporters from Catholic media and The Washington Post) Thursday to talk about the pope, the church and his administration's plans on some contentious issues.

Patricia Zapor has the story for Catholic News Service and the Rev. Drew Christiansen, editor of the Jesuit weekly, America, has blogged on it.

He began by talking about how he was profoundly influenced by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago. According to the transcript, the president said:

Cardinal Bernardin was strongly pro-life. (He) never shrank from speaking about that issue, but was very consistent in talking about a seamless garment and a range of issues that were part and parcel of what he considered to pro-life, that meant he was concerned about poverty, he was concerned with how children were treated, he was concerned about the death penalty, he was concerned about foreign policy.

Asked about conscience clauses for health workers, Obama promised his administration will offer "robust" protection for workers who refuse to provide abortion services or referrals.

The administration is drawing up new rules after Obama pledged to roll back the very broad conscience rule enacted at the end of the Bush administration. Bush extended the right to refuse services or treatment to anyone in the health system, even the cashier at a pharmacy.

Obama said his plan...

may not meet the criteria of every possible critic of our approach, but it certainly will not be weaker than what existed before the (Bush administration's) changes were made.

On his sometimes rocky relationship with U.S. bishops, Obama said, according to Zapor, that he would not be deterred from continuing to work with the U.S. Catholic hierarchy, in part "because I'm president of all Americans, not just Americans who happen to agree with me."

About a third of the nation's bishops loudly criticized University of Notre Dame for giving him an honorary degree at commencement in May. They are unhappy with his pro-abortion-rights stance and his move to permit federal funds to international organizations that provide abortion information of services.

The president also said many bishops:

... have been extremely generous and supportive even if they don't agree with me on every issue ... I know the potential that the bishops have to speak out forcefully on issues of social justice. I think there are going to continue to be areas where we have profound agreements and there are going to be some areas where we disagree. That's healthy."

Obama talked about being eager to meet Pope Benedict XVI next Friday afternoon. According to Christiansen's blog and quotes from official White House transcript, Obama said:

...from a personal perspective, having a meeting with the Holy Father is a great honor and something that I'm very much looking forward to. And hopefully coming out of this meeting we will be able to continue to find areas where we can cooperate on everything from Middle East peace to dealing with worldwide poverty, climate change, immigration, a whole host of issues in which the Pope has taken extraordinary leadership.

Christiansen writes that although the Obamas enjoy worship at Camp David, and every morning his Faith-based office chief Joshua DuBois sends Obama a devotional prayer, the First Family is still looking for a local home church.

Obama repeated concerns that security could be disruptive to a congregation. According to Christiansen, the president also noted that...

... controversies over the Reverend Jeremiah Wright during last fall's election campaign had taught them both that as public figures they could be too easily associated with the views of a particular pastor or congregation.

Also at the small roundtable at the White House: National Catholic Reporter, Catholic Digest, National Catholic Register, Commonweal magazine, Vatican Radio and The Washington Post.

Michael Paulson at The Boston Globe hooked in to the transcript and has several lengthy passages on his blog plus links to all the reports of the roundtable.

Paulson also quotes at length a passage about tensions between religious leaders and gay rights activists. Obama said, in part, that:

...those of us who are people of faith also have to examine our own beliefs and wrestle with them and assure ourselves that we're not causing pain to others. And I think any of us, of whatever faith, would have to acknowledge that there have been times where religion has been used in the service of not such good stuff. And it's incumbent upon us to -- at least in my own view -- to engage in some deep reflection and entertain a willingness to question whether we are acting in a way that's consistent with not just church teachings but also what Jesus Christ our Lord called on us to do: treat others as we would treat ourselves. Be our brother's keepers.

DO YOU THINK... President Obama will have a better rapport with Pope Benedict than he does with U.S. bishops? What are the areas where Obama and the Church can find common ground, even as they disagree on some fundamental issues.

DO YOU WONDER... What are those devotions and can we get them too?

Photo by Saul Loeb, AFP: President Obama, shown here checking his Blackberry as he walks to the Oval Office, gets a devotional prayer sent to him every morning by a faith advisor.

Photo by Jeff Haynes, Bloomberg News: President Obama received an honorary degree and addressed commencement ceremonies at University of Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, in May despite protests by several U.S. Catholic bishops who object to his support of abortion rights.

From The New York Times

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Syria’s president sent a Fourth of July message full of praise to President Obama on Friday and invited him to visit Syria. These were the latest signs that Syria is hedging its bets in the politics of the Middle East, warming up to the United States at a time when Syria’s longtime ally Iran is in turmoil.

The United States and its Arab allies have been hoping to pull Syria away from its alliances with Iran and Islamic militant groups in the region.

Syria seems unlikely to take such a dramatic step, but it does appear worried about Iran’s reliability and the long-term impact of postelection unrest in the country. Also, Hezbollah, a militant organization supported by Iran, suffered a setback when its coalition failed to win parliamentary elections in Lebanon last month; it was defeated by a pro-Western coalition.

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has been expressing hopes for better ties with the United States for months. But the latest developments may make dialogue look more likely.

Mr. Assad sent a telegram to Mr. Obama on the occasion of Independence Day, saying, “The values that were adopted by President Obama during his election campaign and after he was elected president are values that the world needs today.”

According to the state-run news agency, SANA, the telegram said: “It is very important to adopt the principle of dialogue in relations with countries based on respect and mutual interest.”

In an interview with Britain’s Sky News, Mr. Assad invited Obama to visit Damascus to discuss Middle East peace.

“We would like to welcome him in Syria, definitely; I am very clear about this,” Mr. Assad said in English.

Asked whether such a visit could take place soon, Mr. Assad said: “That depends on him.”

He added with a smile, “I will ask you to convey the invitation to him.” President Bill Clinton was the last American chief executive to visit Syria, in 1994.

The longstanding tensions between the United States and Syria have contributed to instability in Lebanon. The United States and Israel have also said that Syria’s backing of Hamas, the militant Palestinian organization, has undermined the Arab-Israeli peace process.

If the United States can draw Syria even somewhat away from Iran and the militant groups allied with it, that would represent a major shift and could help ease tensions in the Middle East.

The Obama administration has been wooing Syria. The administration is sending an American ambassador to Damascus after a four-year break caused by accusations of Syrian involvement in terrorism. Mr. Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, became the highest-level American official to visit Damascus since 2005, and he acknowledged Syria’s significance, saying that it had a central role to play in forging a Mideast peace.

In a separate interview with Sky News, Mr. Assad’s wife, Asma, said she believed that the Syrian and American leaders could work together.

“The fact that President Obama is young — well, President Assad is also very young as well — so maybe it is time for these young new leaders to make a difference in the world,” she said.