Politics

VENICE, Italy

Two weeks after President Barack Obama's groundbreaking speech in Cairo, several Christian leaders gave the president positive marks and expressed hope that it would open a new chapter of dialogue.

"I think it had a very positive effect. It opened new horizons for cooperation between Christians and Muslims, between political authorities, between East and West," said Father Rif'at Bader, who serves as a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Jordan.

"Bridges are being built between civilizations and between religions, and as Christians we pray that everything the politicians are saying will be realized very quickly," he told Catholic News Service June 22.

Father Bader spoke in Venice, where he and other church figures from the Middle East attended a conference on tradition in Christianity and Islam. Like others, he said Arab populations are now looking for Obama's words to be translated into action.

"Credibility will follow that -- realizing what he said in actions on the ground," he said.

WASHINGTON -- Catholics are visibly more active in the Obama administration than in any other Democratic administration in recent memory. Few might have guessed this only a few months back.

“The administration knows that one of the reasons that they’re here is because key chunks of Catholics -- switchable Catholics -- moved from the Republican column to the Democratic column in this last election,” said Stephen Schneck, director of The Catholic University of America’s Life Cycle Institute and former chairman of the university’s politics department.

It is increasingly evident that the Catholic conversation in the public square has undergone a significant change during the past two years and with the help of some unlikely participants. The first of those would be the new president, who has drawn significant fire from certain episcopal quarters and another would be the Vatican, which has been playing against type -- or at least the expectations of some -- when it comes to the new president.

A third set of players -- high profile neoconservative Catholics in the United States -- has succeeded in highlighting not only the changing conversation but the disintegrating royal construct out of which bishops could once command authority simply because of their station.

Last week, I was in conversation with Professor Robert George and former Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon at the National Press club on the topic of the Obama administration and the sanctity of human life. Our general assignment was to explore whether we could build common ground between pro-life and pro-choice perspectives.