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Holy war in Irish cabinet over closure of Vatican Embassy

Labor rules out any reversal of decision in row with Fine Gael

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Sunday, February 5, 2012, 8:23 AM
Updated Monday, February 6, 2012, 11:12 AM

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The entrance to the Irish embassy at the Vatican
The entrance to the Irish embassy at the Vatican
Photo by clericalwhispers.blogspot.com


The Irish government faces a potential Holy War over the decision to close the country’s Vatican embassy.

Coalition party leaders Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore are at loggerheads over the closure, announced after the attack by Kenny on the Vatican’s failure to act on child abuse in the Cloyne diocese.

Kenny has given in to calls from Fine Gael backbenchers to reconsider the decision to remove the Irish embassy from the Vatican.

The Prime Minister went on the record last week when he confirmed that the government would "review" the decision in consultation with Catholic Church authorities.

Now Kenny’s deputy Gilmore, the Labor Party leader, has told Ireland’s biggest Sunday newspaper that the decision to close the embassy at the Vatican is final.
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“The decision will not be reversed. It was a government decision,” Gilmore told the Sunday Independent.

“I have set out the position as to why it was necessary to do so. It was one of three embassies we closed. Like everyone else, the Department of Foreign Affairs had to cut its cloth to measure.

“We have appointed a secretary-general in my department as ambassador as a non-resident. He will service it from Dublin. The decision to close the embassy and not to have an ambassador in residence is not going to be reversed.

“The other issue that comes into play here is the refusal of the Vatican to allow countries to use their embassy to Italy as their embassy to the Vatican.

“So we have had to maintain two residences, two staffs. If the Vatican relaxes its view on that then we can relook at the arrangements then.”

Gilmore’s categorical rejection of calls to re-open the embassy come just 24 hours after Fine Gael’s Junior Minister Lucinda Creighton had announced that an Irish ambassador would return to the Vatican within two years.

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See more: News from Ireland , Vatican , Irish Government
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27 Comments

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merefalow | Feb 06, 2012, 06:47 PM EST
to loosen the priests grip,would be so good for Ireland.

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eiriamach | Feb 06, 2012, 05:50 PM EST
Brennanirish, you're right about historical footnotes. The Vatican has used a nuanced moral relativism to try to salvage its own magisterium from the judgment of history (on slavery, for instance). At the same time, however, the word "relativism" is one of Benedict XVI's favorite derogatory terms to shoot at critics. IC Catholic posters have erroneously labeled me a "relativist" more times than I've been labeled with that other four-letter word in the Catholic apologists' arsenal: "feminist" (used by them to inspire horror of women who believe in equality). I am not a relativist. I continue to maintain that moral principles which transcend eras and cultures can provide objective basis for moral judgments. It's outrageously funny, or comically outrageous, to see Catholic Church apologists falling on their own verbal swords.

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Curitiba | Feb 06, 2012, 05:09 PM EST
You summed it up there nicely, Tooreenagrena 0717

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irishpjk | Feb 06, 2012, 04:55 PM EST
Gearoid4 on Feb 6 2012 01.18 posted the best comment I think everyone should read it

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jamieLM | Feb 06, 2012, 01:18 PM EST
Actions speak louder than words.

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esatdigiwank | Feb 06, 2012, 12:53 PM EST
So many simpering apologists for Rottweiler and his empire here today. Can it be the reason the Vatican has relations with so many countries is that banks in 160 countries plus the Vatican enjoy mutually screwing one another ha ha.

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Gearoid4 | Feb 06, 2012, 11:44 AM EST
@Eiriamach, all right thinking people are disgusted by the terrible crimes of a minority of priests or religious who used their positions of authority to abuse children. Anyone who cares about the future of the Church has a stake in seeing this terrible scourge forthrightly dealt with by ecclesial and civil authorities with all the powers at their command. But some will use the present Church difficulties as a cover for their own "reform" agenda which is nothing more than liberalizing core teachings on subjects like marriage, abortion, sexuality or celibacy. The upcoming conference in Rome in relation to maximizing the Church's response to the sex-abuse scandals, has been described by one of the Irish victims of such a crime, namely Marie Collins, as a very positive sign that the collective Catholic response is moving in the right direction. No other organization of similar standing which is involved with children, can claim to to have taken such unprecedented steps. @Brennanirish, You say that the Church did little to help the Irish people. Well, I would advise you to read a decent history book that deals with Ireland over the centuries. You will find that the Catholic Church made an inestimable contribution to the social/health care and education of the Irish people through Her charitable foundations, hospitals and schools. Many thousands of Irish men and women willingly took holy orders to serve at home or in missions overseas with little personal gain for themselves. Irish people suffered the privations of penal times to keep their Faith alive. Experts of the medieval period contest the letter that supposedly Pope Adrian V1 wrote to the English King Henry 11 granting him sovereignty in Ireland in the 12th century. It has been declared a forgery by some. Anyway Henry went beyond the remit given to him in the letter "Laudabiliter".

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brennanirish | Feb 06, 2012, 08:13 AM EST
The Vatican understands, better than you and I, that moral judgements, of terrible crimes, are only meaningful in the present. Over time, all things are to be judged in the, "context of the times people lived in". Unfortunately, all historical moral injustice, becomes relative to the times in which they occurred. The Church, as a historcial institution, has benefitted greatly by the mere passage ofm time. Todays crimes will simply become historical footnotes like so many other crimes in centuries past. The Catholic Church exploited the, "worst of historical times", in Ireland for its benefit and did little, hisotrically to help the Irish in these times. Ultimately, the British-Irish conflict was started by the only British POPE (Adrian), who gave Ireland to Britian by papal edict......

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Tooreenagrena | Feb 06, 2012, 07:17 AM EST
Without the strength and structure the Church gave the Irish people in the worst of historical times, they would have gone under. A little balance would be nice.

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eiriamach | Feb 06, 2012, 06:29 AM EST
Jacersagain writes, "it is purely their atheistic hatred of the Vatican that caused this huge mistake." More relativist truth-avoidance behavior, self-blinded denial of reality, shoddy ad hominem thinking! Ideologues are not the people who cite facts, Curitiba; they are the people who throw nasty labels around, as you do, when they do not have a rational argument to offer in support of their position.

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eiriamach | Feb 06, 2012, 06:08 AM EST
Elsewhere on IC there are still Catholics screaming about the "relativism" of people like me, who oppose the Vatican's political power grabs and advocate separation of church and state. And here, Irishpjk writes, "sure there were some bad priests, bishops and nuns, but they are a reflection of the society that they grew up in." This statement is pure moral relativism as a jesuitical art form, used to deny moral responsibility for sexual abuse of children in the Roman Catholic Church, to blame it on "the society" or some other amorphous outside force, rather than on the priests, the real human beings, who raped children! So to those self-blinded Catholics who assume that everyone who objects to the rape of children by priests is a "godless," "secularist" "moral relativist," I say try to clean up your shoddy, sloppy, illogical thinking and take a good hard look at who the moral relativists really are-- you'll need a mirror for that! When you deny an obvious truth, you do damage to your ability to discern the truth. Vatican interference in Irish governance has cost the Irish people endless pain and many millions of Euro. The Irish can't AFFORD an embassy to the Vatican, not now and not for a long time!

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JOHNTOBIN | Feb 06, 2012, 05:12 AM EST
Over one hundred and sixty nations of the world have diplomatic relations with the Vatican.They must think it worthwhile to do so.

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stephen1553 | Feb 05, 2012, 08:15 PM EST
there is something weird about being a speaker for God. It seems to make people think they are God themselves and do anything they want to do................5 years ago my Jewish Wife's Rabbi was kicked out of his job despite a lifetime contract. He not only had sex with a woman he was counseling, but also got her pregnant. Need I sday more?

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stephen1553 | Feb 05, 2012, 05:46 PM EST
Who would want to be associated with the church of the endless hidden molestation of children, M & F..................It appears IC does not want us putting links on their blog, its their right, but why dont readers go google "vatican hides rape of nuns"....................Is there no crime the church hasnt committed or hidden?

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jacersagain | Feb 05, 2012, 05:30 PM EST
Lookit - Enda Kenny is now realising what a terrible gaffe it was to cede to pressure from atheists Gilmore and Quinn of the Labour Party to close the Holy See Embassy. The whole of the world's Diplomatic Corps has told him it was a huge mistake. No wonder he says it can be reviewed. Gilmore and his kind have no leg to stand on in this decision - it is purely their atheistic hatred of the Vatican that caused this huge mistake. Enda and friends should ensure it's put right. We Irish should make sure it's put right and vote Gilmore and Quinn out and into oblivion.

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