The White House has decided not to nominate John M. Klink to head the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, according to the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM).
The U.N.-based lobbying group reported that Klink´s nomination was in limbo for months. His critics charged that he wouldn´t be able to carry out U.S. refugee policy and that the Catholic position on contraception is incompatible with this kind of governmental service, C-FAM reported.
The administration is expected, instead, to nominate a retired Air Force colonel, Arthur Eugene Dewey, who served as deputy assistant secretary for refugee affairs in the Reagan administration.
Klink, who holds dual American and Irish citizenship, is said to be considering another position within the Bush administration, C-FAM said.
The Vatican, with Klink´s help, has stymied plans at the United Nations to make abortion a universally recognized human right, C-FAM said. This has drawn the ire of radical feminists inside and outside government and is likely the reason why Klink was so vehemently opposed, the group said.
Klink spent years running refugee programs in Africa and the Far East and volunteered for hardship posts in Yemen and Haiti.
