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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The Obama administration is announcing that late next year the State Department will close the U.S. Embassy in Vatican City, citing security concerns. The Daily caller was told in an email from the Department of State, "The Embassy will be moved to the U.S. government compound that currently houses U.S. Embassy Rome and the U.S. Mission to UN Agencies in Rome. At that point, the U.S. government compound in Rome will house three distinct diplomatic missions with three independently accredited ambassadors working in three separate chanceries. Our Embassy to the Holy See will continue to operate as an independent mission, and our diplomatic presence will remain one of the largest missions accredited to the Holy See."

This will close a mission that has operated at its current location since 1994. Former ambassadors to the Holy See are blasting the move. Former Boston Mayor and ambassador, Ray Flynn told the Daily Catholic Reporter, "It’s not just those who bomb churches and kill Catholics in the Middle East who are our antagonists, but it’s also those who restrict our religious freedoms and want to close down our embassy to the Holy See."

Former ambassadors James Nicholson, Francis Rooney, Mary Ann Glendon and Thomas Melady, also criticized the move. Nicholson told the Daily Catholic Reporter, the move makes "this embassy into a stepchild of the embassy to Italy." Catholic League President, Bill Donohue said to the Daily Caller, "You could make a principled argument that for security or economic reasons the embassy needs to be moved, but that assumes the person making the argument has principles. This administration certainly wasn’t concerned about the safety of its embassy in Benghazi. And as for the economic argument, this is the most fiscally reckless administration in American history. It’s risible to think this administration is concerned about our safety."

BEIRUT — Amid Syria’s ferocious civil war, a nun has emerged as an unlikely power broker and figure of controversy.

Mother Superior Agnes-Mariam of the Cross is seen by Supporters her as a brave truth-teller, and she reflects the fears of many Syrians who worry that hard-line Muslim rebels trying to overthrow Assad will make life intolerable for Christians and other minorities. The nun insists she is not an Assad propagandist, describing his family’s decades-long hold over Syria as a "tumor," but she saves her harshest criticism for the rebels. "The rebels presented themselves as the doctor who will remove this tumor," she said in a recent Skype interview. "They imposed arms as a treatment, and it is killing Syria."

Agnes-Mariam, 61, was born Fadia Laham in Lebanon to Palestinian Christian refugees. In the social upheaval of the ’60s, Laham was a self-described hippie and trekked to Nepal on what she called a spiritual journey that led her to Catholicism. She moved to Syria two decades ago, establishing a new order within the Greek Catholic Church, The Unity of Antioch, and founded the St. James convent 55 miles (90 kilometers) north of Damascus.

The nun was skeptical of the 2½-year-old Syrian uprising from the start. She claimed much of the footage of anti-Assad demonstrations posted to social media networks was faked, along with video of Syrian forces beating and killing protesters

The Syrian government heavily restricts foreign reporting on the fighting. But Agnes-Mariam organized pro-government media tours, using her connections to obtain visas for journalists.