US Ambassador & Former University of St. John’s “Theology” Instructor Accused of Lewd Conduct

Edit: along with a few others, we bemoaned the US President’s appointment of a seething Marxist to be the Ambassador to the Vatican. This Cuban born son of “humble origins”  has taught at the theologically and morally debased Benedictine University of Collegeville, Minnesota which has a long gone unchallenged in its promotion of a culture that runs counter to Catholic teaching.

Diaz has been credibly accused of sexually harassing a husband and wife couple who teaches at  the University of Dayton where he, until recently, worked.  It’s certainly possible there were others who found Diaz’s behavior appalling.  At least the Jesuits are keeping him on their team at University of Chicago Loyola. [Loyola University Chicago]

A relativist in ethics will probably be a relativist in practice. Here’s from an article in the Star and Tribune, which addressed the issue of Diaz’s reticence to take a position on abortion, or at least express the one he has. In typically Modernist vocabulary, he responded:

Asked about reconciling the church's "pro-life" theology with Obama's "pro-choice" politics, Diaz ... suggested that a media interview is not the forum for straightforward ethical statements on abortion.

"In order for me to formulate what I would like to formulate, it would take me more than a simple answer," Diaz said. "So I resist categories of either/or, in terms of arguing this or that. Unfortunately, it does not allow me the time to be able to explain in a thorough and satisfactory way what I mean by whatever I would say I am," he said.

Diaz’s curriculum vitae is interesting.  From wikipedia:

Prior to his service as ambassador, Miguel Diaz was a professor of theology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in Minnesota. Díaz is the co-editor of the book From the Heart of Our People: Explorations in Catholic Systematic Theology and author of On Being Human: U.S. Hispanic and Rahnerian Perspectives, named "Best Book of the Year" by the Hispanic Theological Initiative at Princeton Theological Seminary. Díaz has taught religious studies and theology at Barry University, the University of Dayton and the University of Notre Dame. From 2001 to 2003, he taught and served as academic dean at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida. He is a board member of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) and past president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS).

And from the news story:

A theology professor who is a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican is moving from one Roman Catholic university to another after an investigation found it likely that he sexually harassed a married couple where he now works.

Miguel H. Díaz, who was President Obama’s representative to the Holy See from 2009 to 2012, was found to have likely engaged in “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature” toward a married couple who were his colleagues at the University of Dayton, according to a confidential letter written by Dayton’s provost.

The married couple – husband and wife professors who teach in the humanities – accused Diaz of making various sexual requests and references to sexually explicit feelings. The suggestion that a Catholic theologian suggested an adulterous encounter involving both another man and another woman and that he made unwelcome requests of fellow academics could be problematic for Diaz, a Catholic theologian, who is a married father of four.

Inside Higher Ed