Clinton Urged to Drop Vatican Envoy

A Southern Baptist official has asked President-elect Bill Clinton to revoke a policy instituted by former President Ronald Reagan of appointing a U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

The Rev. Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist social concerns agency, urged Clinton to “strike a blow” for keeping church and state separate by “redressing the wrong done” by Reagan in 1984.

“The Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church is an ecclesiastical entity, not a civil state,” he said in a letter.

He said naming an ambassador to it “virtually tears down the wall of separation between government and this particular denomination, while discriminating against other religious entities which do not receive the same . . . benefits.”