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An American in Ireland

by The Yank

Ireland's cowardly government closes Vatican embassy

Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2011 at 07:03 AM

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Villa Spada in Rome
Ireland's Embassy to the Holy See since 1946
{picture from DFA.ie}

Last week the Irish government announced that it is going to close its embassy to the Holy See. Despite what everyone believes, the government claims that the embassy's closure has nothing to do with the souring of relations between the Vatican and the Irish government over scandals in the Catholic Church in Ireland. In fact, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny "reacted angrily" to the suggestion that the closure was due to anything other than budgetary constraints.

That Kenny and Tánaiste (Deputy PM) Eamonn Gilmore are willing to claim that the closing of Ireland's embassy to the Holy See is due to the need for the state to make savings says more about their cowardice than it does about the state of Ireland's finances. This decision is transparently NOT about saving money.

The Irish government will save €1.2m ($1.65m) with the closing of the embassy. While that's a lot of money to the average Joe, that's not a whole lot of money for a state, even a bankrupt state like Ireland.

Sure the government has to cut back and, yes, Gilmore's Department of Foreign Affairs has to do its share, but it doesn't take long to realize that there are inconsistencies in this tale of budget cuts that make a nonsense of the government's tale.

Start with the building itself.

Ireland's embassy to Italy
{picture from Google.com}

The Irish embassy to the Holy See is in a beautiful building, the Villa Spada {see photo above}, in a beautiful setting on the top of the Gianicolo. Selling that would probably net the government a fair amount, but they're not selling it. No, they're moving Ireland's embassy to Italy from its cheap, rented accommodation {see photo left}into the Villa Spada. If they were serious about saving money they would not give up those cars-parked-in-the-doorway, paint-peeling-off-the-walls offices for a perfectly maintained hilltop Roman villa.

Then there is the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) budget.

This same government department that decided it cannot afford the $1.65m for the embassy at the Vatican is still spending over €400m ($550m) on "Official Development Assistance" or foreign aid. Okay, yes, of course we can't simply cut all foreign aid to poorer countries simply because, well, we're bankrupt. We may be bankrupt, but the people in those poor countries who are dependent on our aid still need to be helped, even if it adds a dollar or two or half a billion to our debt mountain.

Fair enough because those countries are really poor. Right?

Well, if they're really poor and need our aid how come countries like Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are all able to afford an embassy to the Holy See in Rome when we cannot afford the same? After all, those countries are receiving aid from us, yet somehow they can afford that which we can no longer afford. Will the DFA cut off aid to countries rich enough to afford a Vatican embassy? Of course they won't because the cost of a Vatican embassy is not worth worrying about. If it was only about the money we could probably share office space and administration costs with the Malawians.{Here's a great map of the world showing which countries have diplomatic relations with the Vatican and a resident mission, which is what Ireland is closing.}
____________
Read More:

Prime Minister slams suggestion that sex abuse row prompted embassy closure

Shock closure of Irish Embassy in Vatican Announced -- Further evidence of deep problems between Ireland and Holy See

More news stories on the Catholic Church in Ireland from IrishCentral
_____________

No, it was never about the money. That is a fib they're peddling because they're worried about alienating the still fairly sizable minority here who take their Catholicism seriously. At the same time they want the kudos for taking a populist stand, for confronting the Catholic Church over its mishandling of its many scandals.

How gutless. How wimpy. If they want to make a statement on the Catholic Church in Ireland then make the statement and stand over it. They should take the flak.

They didn't. They used prevarication and obfuscation in an attempt to hide the truth from those 'knuckle-dragging' voters who still go to Mass on a Sunday. It didn't work. Now those same voters feel that the government insulted their faith and their intelligence.

This is what angered Kenny. Everyone saw through the official twaddle to the essence of what was happening. Even those Kenny and Gilmore probably assumed would support them conceded that cost was only a smokescreen. The Irish Times admitted it in the first sentence of its editorial. The Irish Examiner said that by its decision the government "has essentially thumbed its nose at the Vatican."

The Examiner then went even further noting that the Catholic Church's tremendous influence across the globe. This is why the United States has full diplomatic relations with the Holy See. "The U.S.-Holy See relationship is best characterized as an active global partnership on a wide range of global issues."

Mary Kenny in the Irish Independent noted that the list of countries with full representation at the Vatican includes many non-Catholic, even non-Christian countries. Thanks to this decision Ireland will now be "a less important link in the globalized network connected to the Holy See."

This is what diplomatic relations are all about. Even when you are in dispute with another state you try to maintain diplomatic relations. Closing the embassy in a fit of pique is short-sighted. Lying about it is stupid.

See more: Vatican, Irish Politics, Irish Catholic Church, Enda Kenny

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joeburke | Jan 27, 2012, 01:36 AM EST

Ireland is not the U.S. Ireland is a sovereign nation. This article was written by "the yank" who fails to identify himself (a cowardly act) and who displays very little knowledge of Irish current events. He is an obvious Republican who has imagined the Irish government to be closely aligned with the American democratic party. It is blatantly obvious that he has never been to Ireland or has gone there with obscure views and lack of knowledge. Why not leave Irish current events to an editor who possess the relevant criterion to tackle them. Preferably someone who actually lives in Ireland. In America Socialism equals communism ...these are very bad words. In Ireland we successfully integrate social economic reforms because Ireland is not governed by a 1% elite group of masons who would have you believe that spreading the wealth a little was a bad thing to do. The standard of living in Ireland for the average person is far superior than it is in the U.S. Don't believe me? Google average pay...benefits...salary etc. Its not your granddaddy's Ireland. Its a forward thinking nation who have taken control back from former abusive controlling clergymen, who dominated the nation by controlling peoples most intimate thoughts and actions while abusing their power. We have excellent intellectual governing figerheads in Ireland who are not elected because of the size of their pocket books. Yank is a derogatory term describing a loud mouth who doesn't really know what he's talking about. Sir you have earned your title.

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KidShelleen | Dec 25, 2011, 07:30 PM EST

Green Go – Yank Go home At the risk of upsetting heretics beneath me who understand perfectly what you are saying. … Heretics usually do not perceive their own beliefs as heretical. ---------- I understand the gist of what the Yank is implying. What I don’t understand is his mincing of words bagged up into a bundle of fat to swing his punch line but instead of letting it fly has knocked himself under the chin. Will someone please interpret ... { “Start with the building itself. Ireland's embassy to Italy {picture from Google.com} The Irish embassy to the Holy See is in a beautiful building, the Villa Spada {see photo above}, in a beautiful setting on the top of the Gianicolo. Selling that would probably net the government a fair amount, but they're not selling it. No, they're moving Ireland's embassy to Italy from its cheap, rented accommodation {see photo left}into the Villa Spada. If they were serious about saving money they would not give up those cars-parked-in-the-doorway, paint-peeling-off-the-walls offices for a perfectly maintained hilltop Roman villa.”} ... what this cranky Yank is trying to say in English English which after all is our native language internationally useful for commerce? He has made his article sound something like maybe he’s peddling a concoction mix unacceptable in a puritan high quality spin Vatican sceptic tank.

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eiriamach | Nov 21, 2011, 05:10 PM EST

Jacersagain, I'm sorry I missed your posts for a full week. Rule Number One for ecclesial formation: Christ is the head of the church. Priests and popes alike are servants. The mission of the church is God's, not to be supplanted by doctrines or magisterium or popes' purposes or bishops' lobbying goals, not to be held down in unchanging traditions such as reserving preaching and scriptural exegesis and administration of sacraments to males selected by males. (The early Christian Church members chose elders of diverse types as presbyters and ministers to the people.) People are abandoning the narrow view of church for an assembly that will be inclusive, far less sure of itself but more certain of help in pursuing God's purposes for humanity while exemplifying for everyone life lived in the spirit le gluaiseacht an Spioraid Naoimh. Níl ionann do bhóthar agus mo bhóthar féin anois, Jacers. Ach beidh mé fanacht leatsa ar an bóthar is ceart, bóthar na leasaitheora.

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jacersagain | Nov 14, 2011, 06:26 PM EST

Foot note: Rule Number one is: Be aware that God exists. Rule Number two: see above.

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jacersagain | Nov 14, 2011, 06:16 PM EST

(…more) So we cannot be ageist, in fact it is impossible to be ageist against an ageless Holy Spirit’s wisdom. Just as power corrupts and fails (think of today’s’ Italian PM Berlusconi, Libya’s Kaddafi, Yemen’s Saleh, Syria’s Assad et al, one can name thousands of others in history, including bad Popes of Rome), suffering humility empowers much more (think Occupy Wall Street, just as one Capitalist example or the simple Christian movement Totus Tuus, or the Human Humble and Humiliated abused children like those now-adults of One-in-Four in Ireland empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak out). We must respect that humility of the Holy Spirit’s wisdom in our daily lives. We must also respect that God our Father, through His personage in the Holy Spirit as exemplified in one of St. Patrick’s plucked shamrock’s leaves, One Plant yet three Leafs - Three Gods in One plant, the Holy Trinity - guided Jesus Christ to exclusively select a few males to “Do this in memory of Me” at the Last Supper. The Irish Govt still “doesn’t get it” where it made complete fools of themselves with their cowardly decision, showing the whole of the diplomatic world what a complete lack of wisdom they have. Not surprising that: once in a power position, most of the Govt’s Cabinet doesn’t believe in the empowerment of the humble abilities by the Holy Spirit of Wisdom. Crassly power-seeking, power-bludgeoning idiots they are… like meek-sounding, yet power-seeking Joanna Moorhead possibly is. I’m letting it go at that. Sin sin go fóill. *Post-script: Chuala mé thú, éiriamach, go raibh maith agat. Guigh go mbeidh sláinte liomsa agus leatsa ar an mbóthar seo*.

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jacersagain | Nov 14, 2011, 05:36 PM EST

(…more) JM describes herself as a Catholic “hanging on by the fingernails” - like many Catholics, I’d add, including myself who one time went through huge doubts and actually stopped being a Catholic before I realized how wrong I was to have even thought of abandoning what was there in such huge simple measure to be treasured in the heart of the RCC, the living Christ of the Eucharist in the tabernacles of the world wherever I travelled, never mind my own dear Dublin City’s parishes' Tabernacles, despite the human faults of both religious and laity like me in the RCC. JM’s concluding statement - (after the words ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day…won’t be dismantled in a day’) which basically says that “the Church that will emerge from the ashes will be more Christ-like” - I found myself totally agreeing with, but hang on a minute: not for the reasons she propounds. For me, I’d substitute her words with “ashes of Satan” as opposed to what she sees as the ashes of elderly male power. In my humble opinion, the undertone of her article smacks of jealousy of power, like she wants to have power too. Sadly, she completely forgets or ignores that any supremacy of power in the Church is dominated by the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, even if It gives it to elderly people to express it even as doctrine, much as many bright young laissez-faire know-it-alls might disagree with their wise expressions. (So… more…)

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jacersagain | Nov 14, 2011, 05:14 PM EST

eiriamach, hello again – What yr last post has to do with the cowardly decision of the Irish Govt that the Yank writes of above I’ll never know. But ironically, I had read Joanna Moorhead’s (JM) article (and a few others) on the ACP site after I had posted my last comments and before you posted yours mentioning her. I'd never heard of JM before but I found myself nodding my head, quietly agreeing with her article until, later thinking about what she says, I realised she was talking about power within the RCC and how she ascribed this power to a select few who “… believe in a God who makes his wishes known to a small and select group of individuals, individuals who happen to be exclusively male, and rather elderly.” One person posted a comment following her article, describing JM as “no friend of the Catholic Church… using this stick to beat the whole Church (the stick being a so-far unproven allegation by one woman against a Benedictine priest which JM refers to in her article; in this context let’s remember Fr. Kevin Reynolds in Ireland who was found to have been, without a single iota of doubt left, falsely accused of abuse through the medium of Irish TV, no less)”. Well, since I never heard of JM before, I don’t know about her not being a friend of the Catholic Church. But… (More…)

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eiriamach | Nov 13, 2011, 02:55 PM EST

Jacers, as Rule Number One, not to be gainsaid by any person or group, a reformed Catholic Church in Ireland will be shaped by the people of Ireland. The ACP is trying to "assemble" people for the task. I have the distinct impression that the priests have no pre-determined agenda to impose. So if you are concerned that their efforts may go astray, perhaps you should get involved and have your voice heard. The latest article on the ACP site, written by Joanna Moorhead, concludes, "Rome wasn’t built in a day, and its untenable power structures won’t be dismantled in one either. The Catholic church’s Arab spring will take many years, probably decades, to achieve. But hear this, bishops and priests: our spring has started, and this week’s developments were important milestones. And know this too: the church that will emerge from the ashes of the old guard will be better, and bigger, and kinder, and more honest; it will be transparent, and accountable, and independent, and diverse. But best of all, it will be more Christ-like, too." The first meeting of the Assembly of the Irish Church is planned for Dublin on May 1st. ACP say, "We will welcome the cooperation of other groups, lay or religious, in this project. If you, as an individual or representing some group, would like to be involved would you please contact us. We aim to meet with interested parties sometime in January to plan the details of the event." It would be encouraging to see this effort succeed without obstruction or undermining.

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jacersagain | Nov 12, 2011, 11:28 AM EST

Well said eiriamach, I cannot but fully agree with you especially re the dangers of a dead conscience 'in denial' way of thinking. However, as a lay man, I am watching the pronouncements of the ACPI with a bit of a jaundiced eye. There is a danger that they may unwittingly be resurrecting aspects of the Reformation mentality of the middle-centuries. If so, we Catholics of the laity can show them where the exit door is.

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eiriamach | Nov 12, 2011, 10:45 AM EST

The Association for Catholic Priests in Ireland has become serious about launching reforms. See their Nov. 4 web article "Assembly of the Irish Church," along with comments from Pobal Dé and others. Now there's a movement to watch-- and maybe for those In Ireland to help out with. Aren't we all weary of hearing about the sex abuse cases and the church's ineffectual attempts to deal with its bad PR? I'll repeat here some of my comment on IC's news article on AB Martin: the second worst effect of the abuse revelations is the blunting of conscience that's happening now. The abuse stories send some people into full denial because it's too painful to read of one after another case coming to light and the abusers having escaped justice while victims were silenced, ignored, bought off, or disbelieved and left alone with their memories. So in the 'States, Herman Cain jokes about sexual harassment and Penn State treats the rape of a 10-year-old like a frat house prank. These are "dead conscience" reactions. It's not the loss of a Vatican embassy that puts us in danger of turning away from God (as AB Martin says), but this relentless assault by facts that can force us to retreat from truth into denial and excuse-making--> moral cowardice. A deadly combination of crime and cover-up repeated can corrode the conscience at last or "make a stone of the heart." Better to get involved with reform, and it's happening now, buiochas a Dia!

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jacersagain | Nov 11, 2011, 09:42 PM EST

@supersurvivor - get yr facts right before you post anymore hatred. Here's a few repeated here for you since you ignored them the first time you read them: There are over 1.2 billion Catholics in the world; there are some 410,000 priests serving them; there are some 3000 priests under investigation by the Church for sexual wrongs, of which 900 are for heterosexual acts, 1800 for sexual acts to adolescents chiefly of the same sex, and the remaining 300 are for sexual acts against children. 2,400 of the 3000 are USA priests. In the light of these facts, I’ll leave yr post at 12.25pm to show all readers how you completely ignore the good work being done by the other 410,000 priests. You should never allow your hatred (you're forgiven that) to cloud your judgement.

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jacersagain | Nov 11, 2011, 08:22 PM EST

BTW Yank - As for those who denigrate the Church and you and me and our kind (yes, they do), I don’t bother with them and I ignore them most of the time. I leave their boorish comments to stand out as witness for all to see how silly and ill-informed they are. These people are, sadly, typical of those whom Christ called Lost Lambs, the ones He wants to bring back to the flock of His universal Church. But where there’s life there’s hope and prayer for them as well as for us believers in Christ’s catholic message.

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jacersagain | Nov 11, 2011, 08:17 PM EST

Yank, it was very kind of you to respond to my posts - I certainly did not expect that and I hope I didn’t disturb any of your quiet lay-off moments. I agree w/ most of yr points in the response and, lest anyone think I am blindly defending the Irish Catholic Church, I have to point out that in many posts on IC I have called for reform in Ireland and indeed in the way Rome goes about spreading the message of Christ. My huge hope of great reform in Rome was lost with the untimely death of Pope John Paul the 1st with his human warmth and lack of trappings, such as his insistence not to be crowned Pope but to have a celebratory Inauguration Mass instead. However, the papacy of JPII and that of Benedict today offer some hope, if not as much or as fast as might have happened under JPI or as I would like to see. >> The chuckling image of the Irish laity of an Irish Bishop on his ordination - “He’ll never want for a dinner again!” has got to be changed, along with the “Them & Us” attitude of some bishops & priests towards their laity. The Bishop Eamonn Casey affair and Fr. Michael Cleary’s secret sons with his housekeeper did untold damage to Irish Catholicism. The Child Abuse scandals made it much worse. Despite these tragic human events, the essential spiritual integrity of Catholicism perseveres amongst Irish people and I think we should maintain a diplomatic presence in the Vatican for many reasons. The Govt’s excuse was untruthful and cowardly, hiding behind the lamest pretext by any Govt. They should have the decency to own up to it and rescind the decision.

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TheYank | Nov 10, 2011, 06:17 PM EST

Dublinlad

Now who's pontificating?

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Dublinlad | Nov 10, 2011, 02:45 PM EST

Listen Yank. Your pontificating is pissing me off. I dont care if they really are cowards and arent telling the truth the reality is the majority here want the blood of these fuc£ers and this is one way of doing it. They fudged major time on their response to Kenny's accusations in the dail and still wont admit that their policy was to avoid giving up the pedo's to the police. As for your bitchin about not telling the truth. On what planet does an american have the right to ask politicans to play their game with truth. Go home.

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An American in Ireland

Ireland's cowardly government closes Vatican embassy

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Ireland's cowardly government closes Vatican embassy

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