Mary Ann Glendon

Mary Ann Glendon. U.S. State Department photo

Mary Ann Glendon (born October 7, 1938 Pittsfield, Massachusetts) J.D., LL.M., was the shortest-term United States Ambassador to the Holy See (February 2008 – January 2009), and is the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She teaches and writes on bioethics, comparative constitutional law, property, and human rights in international law. She is pro-life and "writes forcefully against the expansion of abortion rights."

Career

President George W. Bush and Laura Bush stand with 2005 National Humanities Medal recipient Mary Ann Glendon.

Glendon graduated from University of Chicago Law School, where she served on the law review.

Glendon is the author of Rights Talk; A Nation Under Lawyers, and A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1994, she was a signer of Evangelicals and Catholics Together, an ecumenical document aimed at rapprochement between Catholics and Evangelicals. Glendon became the first female President of the Roman Catholic Church's Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, when she was appointed by Pope John Paul II on March 9, 2004 (she was already a member of the academy since January 9, 1994).

In 1995, she was the Vatican representative to the international 1995 Beijing Conference on Women sponsored by the United Nations, where she contested the use of condoms for the prevention of HIV and AIDS. "The Holy See in no way endorses contraception or the use of condoms, either as a family planning measure or in HIV/AIDS prevention programs."

The National Law Journal named her one of the "Fifty Most Influential Women Lawyers in America" in 1998.

Glendon was appointed by President Bush to the President's Council on Bioethics. Her nomination as United States Ambassador to the Holy See was announced on 5 November 2007. The U.S. Senate voted to confirm her on December 19, 2007. She presented her Letters of Credence to Pope Benedict XVI on 29 February 2008, and resigned her office effective January 19, 2009.

Politics

Glendon is a supporter of Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. She also supported Romney's campaign in the 2008 presidential election.

Glendon writes and serves on the advisory council for First Things, an ecumenical conservative journal that encourages a religiously informed philosophy for the ordering of society.

Laetare Medal Controversy

Glendon was selected by the University of Notre Dame as the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Laetare Medal but declined the award due to the university's controversial decision to host Barack Obama as its commencement speaker and bestow upon him an honorary degree. In light of Obama's strong pro-choice policies, Glendon considered Notre Dame's decision to be in violation of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' 2004 pronouncement that Catholic institutions should not give "awards, honors, or platforms" to "those who act in defiance of [Catholic] fundamental moral principles." Glendon also felt that the university was implicitly trying to use her acceptance speech to give the appearance of balance to the event and expressed concern about the "ripple effect" Notre Dame's disregard of the USCCB pronouncement is having on the nation's other Catholic schools.

She later received an award from the National Right to Life Committee at its Pro-Life Awards Dinner in October.

Mary McAleese Controversy

In October 2012 the former Irish President (and Catholic) Mary McAleese revealed that, on a state visit to the US in 1998, she was publically berated by Cardinal Bernard Law for her stance on the ordination of women. During a heated argument with McAleese and members of her delegation, the cardinal attempted to force her into a room to listen to a lecture by Mary Ann Glendon on the church's views on women priests. McAleese rebuked him with the statement "I was the President of Ireland and not just of Catholic Ireland."

Quotes

"What is clearly 'old-fashioned' today is the old feminism of the 1970s — with its negative attitudes toward men, marriage and motherhood, and its rigid party line on abortion."

See also

• George W. Bush Supreme Court candidates

External links

• Articles by Mary Ann Glendon in First Things
• Harvard Law School: Learned Hand Professor of Law Mary Ann Glendon
• glendonbooks.com: Professor Mary Ann Glendon
• Wall Street Journal: Commentary on U.S. Federal Marriage Amendment
• The President's Council on Bioethics: Biography of Mary Ann Glendon
• The Holy See: Mary Ann Glendon
• The Marian Library:Holy See's Final Statement at Women's Conference in Beijing
• University of Navarra: Mary Ann Glendon awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Navarra (in Spanish)
• Glendon's page at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Francis Rooney	U. S. Ambassador to the Holy See 2008–2009	Succeeded by Miguel H. Diaz