Fall out from closing of Irish Embassy at the Vatican

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Well, I guess a thousand years’ worth of extremely pious Irish Catholicism is finally being booted out the door.
 
I will grant that Ireland needs some governmental austerity right now, and there is probably little that is done at the Vatican Embassy that cannot be done at the Embassy in Rome.

But still… 😦
 
(Reuters) - Catholic Ireland’s stunning decision to close its embassy to the Vatican is a huge blow to the Holy See’s prestige and may be followed by other countries which feel the missions are too expensive, diplomatic sources said on Friday.
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The closure brought relations between Ireland and the Vatican, once ironclad allies, to an all-time low following the row earlier this year over the Irish Church’s handling of sex abuse cases and accusations that the Vatican had encouraged secrecy.
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Ireland will now be the only major country of ancient Catholic tradition without an embassy in the Vatican.
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reuters.com/article/2011/11/04/us-vatican-ireland-idUSTRE7A33D120111104?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

😦
 
I don’t believe the true motive is to save money, but to rid Ireland of religious infuence, the Labour Coalition in the goverment will see to that, some of them being Atheists! 😦
 
This is very sad. I’m actually stunned that this has happened. Is this politically motivated? I suppose so.
 
A sad day, but it’s good that the enemies of Holy Mother Church are no longer hiding in the shadows. They have grown overconfident.
 
Ireland is not cutting diplomatic ties altogether, they’re simply no longer going to have those duties assigned to a full-time guy in Rome.

Here is the Vatican’s official statement on this:

“The Holy See takes note of the decision by Ireland to close its embassy in Rome to the Holy See. Of course, any State which has diplomatic relations with the Holy See is free to decide, according to its possibilities and its interests, whether to have an ambassador to the Holy See resident in Rome, or resident in another country. What is important are diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the States, and these are not at issue with regard to Ireland”.

John Allen has a story about it which gives some more details. Apparently, they cite financial cuts as the reason (Ireland also announced doing the same with their diplomatic posts in Iran and East Timor).

On some level, it makes sense. The Vatican gig is probably a bit more low key and easy to assign to another diplomat in addition to his other duties. That said, it is hard not to read significance into this in light of Ireland’s history as a Catholic country and the recent sex abuse crisis.
 
Got a kick out of Walter Russell Mead’s take on Ireland closing their Vatican embassy. Appears that the broke island is looking for ways to save money. Other embassy’s are being closed also.

“Apocalypse Watch: Ireland Closes Vatican Embassy, UK To Allow Catholic Royals”

blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/11/04/apocalypse-watch-ireland-closes-vatican-embassy-uk-to-allow-catholic-royals/

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Via Meadia is OK with both decisions. The Irish ambassador to Italy can handle any diplomatic business with the Holy See, and by the time the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have kids who reach marrying age I suspect that the British will be able to handle the prospect of Papists spouses hovering near the throne.
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Tighty_Whitey said:
This is very sad. I’m actually stunned that this has happened. Is this politically motivated? I suppose so.
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Yes, I suppose there is a teent-weeny chance that this motivated by the disgust and anger with the Church. Child molestations, coverups, rapes, more coverups, beatings, and still more coverups:rolleyes:

Or they may be doing it just to save some money:shrug:
 
This, and the Irish blockade runners to Gaza.

I’m half Irish, and I used to be proud of it.😦
 
This is thought-provoking. Why did Ireland need an embassy there anyway? Why does any country need an embassy there? Isn’t the Vatican supposed to be spiritual and not temporal? Didn’t the Vatican give up most of its territorial possessions in Italy in the 19th century? Isn’t it sufficient to have diplomatic relations with small countries without having a full blown embassy?
 
I tend to agree with Jharek here, the Irish Goverment is well known here for shifting the blame, anything to deflect from their own shortcomings and failings! I’m disgusted with them! 😦
 
I think this is a non-issue. An embassy functions to regulate ties between two States. The Vatican - rather than the Church - has little relevance to the Irish people.
 
Cormacnl said:
I think this is a non-issue. An embassy functions to regulate ties between two States. The Vatican - rather than the Church - has little relevance to the Irish people.
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So you think severing ties between the two states are a good thing? I don’t think so! The Irish Government is able to find €715m for Anglo bondholders.

sligotoday.ie/details.php?id=17119&PHPSESSID=526b8ef34a2d7e150f2b9397fc315a6b

By comparison they are only saving €700,000 per year by severing ties with the Vatican! 😦
 
BVM_1221 said:
Yes, I suppose there is a teent-weeny chance that this motivated by the disgust and anger with the Church. Child molestations, coverups, rapes, more coverups, beatings, and still more coverups:rolleyes:
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I think Catholics downplay the above. Whenever children are involved, it raises people ire. Child abuse is the quickest and most effective way of damaging releases, regardless of how long they have been in place.
 
The Irish State is NOT severing diplomatic ties with the Vatican.

The Irish embassy to Italy is currently just 4 kilometers away from the Villa Spada, the Irish embassy to the Vatican. Staff working in the embassy to Italy in Rome, which is a rented premises costing €200,000 annually, will be transferred to Villa Spada.

Since 2009 Ireland has been attempting to reduce and rationalise its representation abroad from 75 to 55 embassies and legations. These current closures, Iran, East Timor (to which Ireland gives and will continue to give large amounts of aid) and the Vatican, are part of this process of reduction and rationalisation.

It makes no sense economically to have two full embassies within four kilometers of each other. It makes even less economic sense to have a fully staffed embassy to a population of less than 1000 when the Irish Italian embassy could easily do both tasks. However, the Vatican does not permit this.

However, I think it is likely that had the clerical abuse scandals not happened, and had the Vatican not snubbed the various judicial enquiries in Ireland, the Irish embassy to the Holy See would not have made it on to the list.

There hasn’t been an Irish ambassador to the Vatican since May 2011; there hasn’t been a Papal Nuncio in Ireland since July. Irish Catholics haven’t even noticed.
 
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