Sen. Eric Schmitt by United States Senate / Wikimedia Commons (Left), Brian Burch / CatholicVote (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., strongly criticized Senate Democrats after they blocked the confirmation of Brian Burch, President Donald Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the Holy See, in a May 13 Senate floor vote.
Schmitt, a Catholic, had sought unanimous consent on the Senate floor to move Burch’s nomination forward. Citing the historic election of Pope Leo XIV, Schmitt framed the ambassadorship as a pivotal opportunity for US-Vatican diplomacy.
“With the election of Pope Leo XIV last week, the first American born pope in the history of the Catholic Church, we have a unique opportunity to help develop relationships with the Vatican like never before,” he said in a press release following the vote.
Schmitt emphasized that Burch, the president of CatholicVote, was positioned to deepen this diplomatic relationship. However, Senate Democrats blocked the motion, effectively stalling Burch’s path to confirmation.
Following the Democratic block on the Senate floor, Schmitt delivered a pointed rebuttal accusing the opposition of obstructionism.
“Not only is the Senate broken through this process, this ruse, the Democrats are broken,” he said.
He argued that such obstruction hadn’t been seen in decades, noting it hasn’t taken this level of effort to confirm nominees since the Ford administration — evidence, he said, of deep dysfunction within the Democratic Party.
The senator also warned that the obstruction carries real diplomatic consequences, particularly as the Vatican prepares to welcome a new pontiff.
“The ambassador can’t be there for the installation of the new pope,” Schmitt emphasized. “I just never thought I’d see the day that the ‘resistance’ would mean holding up the ambassador to the Holy See to be there for the installation of the pope. But here’s where we are: total brokenness from the other side.”
