Biden lauds Dominican leader as top Catholic again slams gay U.S. envoy

Santo Domingo.- While U.S. vice president Joe Biden praised president Danilo Medina for Congress’ quick approval of the the Naturalization Act and called him a decided leader,” Washington’s embattled gay ambassador was again the target of mounting rebuke by Dominican Republic’s powerful Catholic Church.

"I spoke with the President of how pleased and surprised I am that he could act so quickly regarding the country’s Supreme Court ruling, andof course, this was clearly a crucial step. a very decided and determined leader was needed, and you Mr President embody both," Biden said.

He noted however that still pending are the rules to enforce that law.

"The Dominican Republic has its challenges to improve the conditions of the Haitian migrants born here. I want to congratulate you for the quickand decisive manner and for the speed with which you got that naturalization law passed in the Dominican Congress. I think it’s something really important."

After a meeting behind closed doors for more than one hour, Medina and Biden held a press conference and announced an agreement to strengthen cooperation in education, the environment, security and energy.

The cardinal fires another salvo

Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodríguez on Thursday again railed against the openly gay U.S. Ambassador, asking James Brewster to “take his gay pride elsewhere,” and reminded him that diplomacy is used to promote relations, moral values, trade agreements and mutual cooperation among the world’s countries.

"Diplomacy is not for that sort of thing, an absolutely negative propaganda," the Archbishop of Santo Domingo told reporters who asked about a video released by the U.S. Embassy, where Brewster and his husband Bob Satawake promote the celebration of "Gay Pride Month” in June.

The cardinal spoke after heading a mass to mark Corpus Christi in San Antonio parish, in the Gazcue sector.

"I am totally against that, everybody knows it, my position is not new, not because this man with this kind of attitude has now arrived."