Senate Democrats block U.S. Vatican ambassador confirmation: What’s next?
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by
Caroline Molloy
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Senate Democrats this week blocked the confirmation of Brian Burch, President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, stalling the nomination process ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s installation Mass this Sunday.
Burch, co-founder of the political advocacy group CatholicVote, must now garner 60 votes in the Senate, a three-fifths majority, after Democratic senators invoked the filibuster on more than 50 low-level nominations. A filibuster is a Senate tactic allowing senators to delay or block votes by extending debate, requiring 60 votes to invoke cloture and proceed to a final vote.
“I never thought I’d see the day when Democrats would be willing to block the nominee for ambassador to the Holy See simply to score political points with their far-left radicals, but it seems they’re still searching for rock bottom,” Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Catholic, said in a statement to CNA.
“Now, with only two days until Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration, the United States will not have a diplomatic presence in the Vatican to the detriment of Catholic Americans across the nation,” he continued. “The Democrats’ political games are shameful, and the Senate should immediately vote on Brian Burch’s nomination to ensure the U.S. has a diplomatic presence at the Vatican as the new Roman Curia is installed.”
Schmitt slammed his Democrat colleagues on the Senate floor for blocking the nomination that had previously advanced along bipartisan lines by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, describing the Democrats’ blocking of Burch’s confirmation as “obstructionist.”
Later, in a livestream on social media platform X on Tuesday evening, Schmitt noted the Senate is currently working to confirm Trump’s lower-profile nominees while it awaits the passage of its reconciliation bill. However, in an unprecedented turn of events, Democratic senators placed “blanket holds” on a swath of nominations, invoking the filibuster to require 60 votes to confirm them.
