Volume 4, Number 41

October 5, 2001

Klink State Department Nomination Dead, Anti-Catholicism Charged

By Austin Ruse

     (NEW YORK - C-FAM) It is being reported that the White House has decided not to nominate former Vatican UN negotiator John Klink to head the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Instead, the Bush Administration is expected to nominate a retired Air Force colonel, Arthur Eugene Dewey, who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Refugee Affairs in the Reagan administration. Klink is said to be considering another position within the Bush administration.

     The Klink nomination lived in limbo for the past several months while Klink's opponents attacked him in the press. They charged that, because of the positions he defended at the UN, he would be unable to carry out US refugee policy and that the Catholic position on contraception is incompatible with this kind of service.

     Privately, Klink indicated his support for Bush administration policy, which is said to emphasize responsibility while accepting condoms. What is not widely known is that, while morally opposed to all forms of contraception, the Vatican has never blocked UN consensus on the question of contraception. Instead, the Vatican has entered "reservations," which allow a government to disagree with specific language, and in this case reiterates Church teachings on contraceptive use.

     It is true that the Vatican - with Klink's help - has stymied the radical plans to make abortion a universally recognized human right. This has consistently drawn the condemnation of radical feminists both within and outside government and is likely the real reason Klink has been so vehemently opposed. Klink was also criticized for thwarting attempts at the Cairo+5 Conference to provide contraceptives, alone, to refugees. Klink insisted refugee assistance had to include food, shelter, and clothing.

     There was little dispute that Klink was qualified for the post. He spent years running large and dangerous refugee programs in Africa and the Far East and volunteered for hardship posts in Yemen and Haiti. It seems Klink was disqualified because he negotiated documents for the Vatican at the UN, which for some brings up the question whether Klink has been the victim of anti-Catholic bias. "A Catholic who disagrees with his church on contraception and abortion would be welcomed with open arms," said Robert Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute. "It seems, however, that a real Catholic is not welcome. This raises the question of a religious test for political office, which is unconstitutional."

     It is widely known that some career people within the State Department opposed Klink's nomination. One of President Clinton's chief UN negotiators, also Klink's main adversary in UN debates, was Margaret Pollack, a pro-abortion feminist who still represents the Bush administration in the Office of Population. A State Department source told the Friday Fax that some in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration celebrated when Klink's nomination came under fire.

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