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- President Biden has tapped former Sen. Joe Donnelly as his ambassador to the Vatican.
- The Indiana Democrat would be in charge of relationships with Catholic Church leadership.
- Donnelly, 66, defended Biden's faith in op-eds before the 2020 election.
President Joe Biden will nominate former Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly as the US ambassador to the Vatican, the White House confirmed on Friday to Insider.
"I am truly honored to be nominated to this role by President Biden, a man of faith and a friend," Donnelly said in a statement. "If confirmed, I look forward to working with the Holy See on a wide variety of issues, including human rights, religious freedom, immigration, climate change, peace, and poverty."
Donnelly, of Granger, Ind., is a devout Irish Catholic and known as a "Double Domer" because he received a bachelor's from the University of Notre Dame and a J.D. from Notre Dame Law School.
Now he's on the brink of one of the most important jobs for his church in a position known by its formal title as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Holy See.
The Rome-based role is now filled by Chargé d'Affaires Patrick Connell, who took over for the Trump appointee Callista Gingrich.
Biden, only the second Catholic president in US history after John F. Kennedy, has recently been at odds with some of the leaders of his faith. In June, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops began considering whether to deny pro-choice politicians from receiving Communion.
During the 2020 election, Donnelly served as a co-chair of Catholics for Biden and wrote an Indianapolis Star op-ed defending Biden's faith.
"Joe Biden lives his faith every day," Donnelly wrote. "Every Sunday, he is on his knees attending Mass and praying for his country, his family, and all those in need in our beloved nation. I know this because I know Joe Biden and I come from the same Irish Catholic faith tradition."
Donnelly had sought a role in Biden administration for months
In choosing Donnelly for the role, Biden returned to what has become a reliable talent pipeline.
Donnelly would be the third member of the University of Notre Dame's adjunct faculty Biden has brought into his administration. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg taught a course on the declining trust Americans have in institutions at the Institute of Advanced Studies in 2020. And Veteran Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough taught courses on public policy, management, and leadership.
After Biden's victory in November, Donnelly, who is close to Buttigieg, sneaked into his backyard in neighboring South Bend, Indiana, and, over coffee and donuts, the two strategized about their respective paths in the Biden administration, according to a person familiar with the conversation. Since then, Donnelly had expressed interest in several ambassador roles.
Donnelly, 66, a former member of the Afghanistan Study Group, brings some foreign-policy experience to the role. In the Senate, Donnelly served on the Armed Services Committee - as ranking member of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee - and on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, where he was the ranking member of the National Security and International Trade and Finance Subcommittee. Before his Senate career, he was a member of the US House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013, representing Indiana's 2nd Congressional District.
A backlog of ambassadors
After losing to Republican Sen. Mike Braun in November 2018, Donnelly taught national-security courses as a professor of practice in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He previously served three House terms.
Donnelly joined Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP's public law and policy practice in 2019, working for clients in the financial services, defense, and healthcare industries. There he has advised clients about reconciliation for Akin Gump.
The Indiana Democrat is among a group of former senators who've landed ambassadorships, including Arizona Republican Jeff Flake, who is Biden's ambassador pick for Turkey, and former New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, Biden's pick for New Zealand and the Independent State of Samoa.
Biden has had just one ambassador to another country confirmed so far - Ken Salazar, who is ambassador to Mexico- as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has been blocking the other nominations from moving to a vote.