National Catholic Youth Conference...and Obama???

I had the privilege of attending the National Catholic Youth Conference last weekend. Overall, it was outstanding. Great speakers, great events. This is surely due to the host bishop, Bishop Robert Finn; reason being that the NFCYM - National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry - is a rather liberal (heterodox) organization. They do some great work though.

What I did not understand at the Conference, though, is why 20,000 Catholic Youth needed to hear from the United States amabassador to the Holy See.

Miguel Diaz, a theologian influenced by Liberation Theology (not at all truly Catholic, or even Christian, actually-it basically believes God does not care about personal sin but only injustice against large groups of people, and that God suffers when they suffer...a changing God...a non-eternal omnipresence...) had his faced blasted all over the big screen and he started his message with something along the lines of "I was honored that President Barack Obama appointed me the first Hispanic-American ambassador to the Holy See."

I chuckled. This is not race baiting, but that is not a big deal. It would be like a Scotch Irishman getting excited that he was appointed first British ambassador to the Holy See. The way he said it, though, makes it seem like more of a milestone than it really was.

He then went on about how he is working with the President and the Pope to build bridges and help others. There was much more Obama talk than Pope Benedict talk.

The big question I have though, is why? The NCYC conference NEVER heard from Bush's ambassador to the Holy See (who is a Catholic in good standing, by the way). It has never heard from one before. Why this guy, all of a sudden? Given the absolute praise-fest that Dr. Bob McCarty, president of the NFCYM gave Obama in the wake of his election, it should not have been as big a surprise as it was.