Callista Gingrich Vatican move is a slap in the face to Catholics

By Christine M. FLOWERS

Philadelphia Daily News

So let me put my cards on the table at the beginning:

I definitely believe in judging. Pope Francis would be very disappointed in me, since he has made a habit of saying “Who Am I To Judge?” usually on airplanes and usually talking about gays, lesbians and Republicans.

But while the pope is a good Catholic (I have it on good authority that’s he’s one of the best in the profession), I am not. So, I can judge to my heart’s content, and still apply for the sinner’s discount on Judgment Day (pun intended).

All of this is to say I have no problem whatsoever judging Callista Gingrich who, coincidentally, will likely be going to the Vatican and NOT be judged by Pope Francis. You see how I can bring these things full circle?

Newt’s wife

A little background for you. Callista Gingrich is married to Pennsylvania native Newt Gingrich, who used to be a very celebrated speaker of the House and now just speaks a lot about how Donald Trump is being maligned by liberals. He says these things to Sean Hannity, and they have delightful conversations on network news. In fact, every time I turn on Hannity, I see Newt, so I feel safe in saying that Sean only talks to Newt, and Newt only talks to Sean, except when he is talking to Callista.

Actually, that’s not correct. Sean, Newt and Callista also talk to Donald, and the reason I know this is because Mrs. Gingrich was just tapped to be the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. The only person that can appoint you U.S. ambassador to the Vatican is the president of the United States, and so I’m fairly certain that, at some point, Callista got a phone call or a tweet from Donald telling her that he was sending her to fill the crucial role of liaison with the pope.

Normally, I would say that with tongue in cheek, because we all know the Vatican is not exactly our most valuable military ally. As none other than Trump’s grandfather’s best friend Joseph Stalin once said, “How many divisions does the pope in Rome have?”

Still, the U.S. is filled with all sorts of Catholics, including lapsed, cafeteria, former, anti-, recovering, devout, repentant and Martin Sheen, and we are very loud, and we vote, so the U.S. government has always made sure that the relationship with the Mother Ship is a good one.

Most presidents have succeeded admirably in finding good people to represent us in Rome, and of course they have generally been Catholics. One of John F. Kennedy’s sisters was the Ambassador to the Vatican (ATTV). Cokey Roberts’ mother, Sen. Lindy Boggs, was an ATTV. A professor at Harvard law, the president of Catholic Relief Services and Ray Flynn, former mayor of Boston, have also been ATTVs. They had long and impressive resumes, and you can be sure that the respective popes they served did not have to raise any eyebrows about their qualifications or character.

This pope won’t be raising anything either, but with Callista, he would definitely be entitled to. Since he won’t, I will.

Lifelong Catholic

First, the good things. Callista Gingrich is a lifelong, devout and practicing Catholic. She runs a production company called, creatively, “Gingrich Productions,” and has produced a documentary about Pope John Paul II. She has written children’s books about a patriotic elephant, and in the 1990s served as a congressional aide. Which is where she met her current husband, who at that time was the current husband of his wife of 18 years, Marianne Gingrich (formerly of Trumbull County.)

In 1999, Gingrich told Marianne that he was having an affair with Callista and wanted a divorce. I don’t feel all that bad for Marianne because she, too, was having an affair with randy Newt while he was married to his first wife, who was battling cancer. But still, this shows a pattern that the former speaker of the House seems to have perfected: Find a woman, marry her, find another woman, date her while still married to your wife, divorce that wife, hang on for a while, find another woman to date, divorce the intermediate wife, get married to the next one. Rinse, repeat.

But Newt isn’t being named to hang out with the pope, even the kind that doesn’t like to judge. His wife is, the one who had an affair even while she was supposedly being devout and going to church and thinking about her future as children’s book author.

mean and ‘Judgey’

You might think that I am being very mean and “judgey” here, and you would be absolutely correct. I mean, I warned you in the first sentence, but just like Elizabeth Warren, God bless her, you persisted.

But the point is Trump has chosen as the U.S. representative to the Vatican a woman who committed adultery when I’m fairly certain he could have found at least one happily married Catholic somewhere who hadn’t double-dipped.

The fact that he selected Callista Gingrich for the job is going to be excused by the sort of people who think Trump can do no wrong, and condemned by the sort of people who hate him.

I neither hate, nor love the man. I do, however, love my faith, and this ambassadorial choice is a slap in the face to all Catholics.

Sue me for judging.

Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer and columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.