Ambassador Francis Rooney was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005 serving for three years as the U. S. Ambassador to the Holy See.

     Ambassador Rooney is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Rooney Holdings, Inc., and Manhattan Construction Group, which is engaged in road & bridge construction, civil works and building construction and construction management in the United States, Mexico and the Central America/Caribbean, and has a Naples-based subsidiary, Manhattan Construction (Florida).

      Ambassador Rooney rejoined the Board of Advisors of the Panama Canal Authority, Republic of Panama, on which he served prior to government service, and is a member of the Board of the Florida Gulf Coast University Foundation and Co-Chair of the Board of the School of International Studies of the University of Oklahoma.

      He is a Trustee of The Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, in Washington, D.C. Ambassador Rooney currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Helmerich & Payne, Inc. and Laredo Petroleum, Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma, and VETRA Energy Group, Bogota, Colombia. He is a graduate of Georgetown University (A.B. 1975) and Georgetown University Law Center (J.D. 1978), and holds honorary degrees from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Dallas. He is also a member of the District of Columbia and Texas Bars, and holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100 Ton Masters License (Sailing Endorsement).  

      The United States has had ambassador level diplomatic relations with the Holy See several times in our history, and most recently due to the impetus of President Ronald Reagan, since 1984. While we interact with the Holy See in many ways similar to how other secular missions deal with their interlocutors, the fact that this sovereign has no territory, save the 108 acre city-state of Vatican city, and is a church, involve considerations and opportunities for the United States which are unique to this mission. 172 nations have diplomatic relations with the Holy See and its own network of "nuncios", or ambassadors, is active in all parts of the world.

      The Pope is the nominal head of all this, as he is of the Catholic Church, but the Holy See is organized into a Secretariat of State which resembles how our own State Dept. functions, combined with aspects of parliamentary systems of government.

Pope Benedict XVI has been more active diplomatically than originally expected, due to his age, and has led the world in challenging the actions of Islamic fundamentalists and in criticizing the growing secularism in the western world. Recent actions like the conscience clause debate engendered by the Obama Administration and some legal challenges to peripheral religious activities like Hosana vs Tabor in the United States have put the issue of secularism and the role of religion in society and social interaction on the front pages, which relates to the US - Holy See relationship as well.

Don't forget, our luncheons move to Monday starting this month.