By Gerard O'Connell
Vatican Insider
November 5, 2011
vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/the-vatican/detail/articolo/irlanda-ireland-vaticano-vatican-ambasciata-embassy-embajada-9635/
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| Dublin |
Ireland has become the first Catholic country in Europe not to have a resident ambassador to the Holy See after the Irish Government decided to close its Embassy in Rome and conduct its relations through a non-resident Ambassador.
While Vatican officials were clearly disappointed at the Irish decision - "sadness" was the word most frequently used, a senior official told Vatican Insider that the Holy See, for its part, would soon appoint a resident nuncio to Ireland.
The Irish Foreign Minister, Eamon Gilmore, broke the news in a press statement on November 3, saying: "It is with the greatest regret and reluctance that the Government has decided to close Ireland's Embassies to the Holy See and Iran and its Representative Office in Timor Leste".
He presented the decision in the context of the serious economic crisis that has hit Ireland forcing it to cut public expenditure "across a wide range of public services", under a program agreed with the EU and the IMF. "No area of Government expenditure" was immune from such cuts" including the country's overseas diplomatic missions which, he said, were reviewed "with particular attention to the economic return from bilateral missions".
While the Embassy to the Holy See "is one of Ireland's oldest missions, it yields no economic return", Gilmore stated. He said the Government "believes that Ireland's interests with the Holy See can be sufficiently represented by a non-resident Ambassador", and so it would seek the Holy See's agreement "to the appointment of a senior diplomat to this position."
The Vatican responded calmly to the news through its spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, who said the Holy See "took note" of the Irish decision. He explained that every state that has relations with the Holy See "is free to decide, on the basis of its possibilities and its interests, whether to have an Ambassador who to the Holy See who is resident in Rome or resident in another country". But it is "the diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the States" that are really important, he said, "and these are not in question in relation to Ireland".
Shortly after the announcement, Ireland's Cardinal Sean Brady, expressed "profound disappointment" at the Government's decision which, he said, "means that Ireland will be without a resident ambassador to the Holy See for the first time since diplomatic relations were established" in 1929.
He revealed that Gilmore had informed him by phone of the "regrettable but necessary decision" and said it had been made "in the light of the current economic situation" and "is not related to recent exchanges between the Government and the Holy See".
Cardinal Brady said the decision "seems to show little regard for the important role played by the Holy See in international relations and of the historic ties between the Irish people and the Holy See over many centuries." For many observers, however, a number of factors went into the Irish Government's decision, both economical and political.
From the economic point of view, the Government is seeking to save 3.6 billion euro through cost cutting across the board. By closing its Embassy to the Holy See (the Irish bought the property in 1946) it saves around 0.5 million euro. But it makes a significant additional saving (over 1.5 million euro) by transforming that embassy into the residence of the Irish Ambassador to Italy, who is currently living in an expensive, rented house near the Terme di Caracalla, Rome, where the lease will soon expire.
The decision, however, would seem to have as much, if not more, to do with politics than economics. Before yesterday's decision, Ireland had 58 embassies, 7 multilateral missions, 11 consulates, and 4 other offices worldwide. Was it really necessary to close the Embassy to the Holy See? Would it not have been sufficient to reduce staff there, as it is doing elsewhere, as many sources had expected? Or did the Irish Government feel that the return in terms of information and exchange from this listening post, was not worth the investment?
When Ireland first established diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1929, six years after gaining independence from Britain, the new Irish Free State considered this "a very significant moment", as Cardinal Brady recalled yesterday. It saw it as very important, not only because of the historically close bonds between the Irish people and the Holy See, but also because it helped the new Republic assert its "identity and presence" internationally, at a time when Ireland only had diplomatic representations in Washington, London and at the League of Nations.
Today, however, Ireland's standing in the world is totally different; it has diplomatic relations with 167 states, and the Government views the Holy See in a very different light to what it did in 1929.
More importantly, perhaps, the country has gone through an economic and cultural revolution over the last 30-40 years that has also impacted on the role of religion and the Catholic Church in the country, and its relationship with the State. Secularization has made big inroads too.
The sexual-abuse of minors by clergy scandal, in particular, has had a dramatic effect on the Irish people in recent years, and this culminated in the attack on the Vatican by Prime Minister Enda Kenny, last summer. He accused the Vatican of not cooperating with the independent judicial inquiries into the child sex-abuse scandal, and of not doing all it could to protect children. All this has created a climate in the country which made it possible for the Government to close its embassy to the Holy See without provoking uproar among Irish Catholics.
Cardinal Brady, in his statement yesterday, said he hoped that "despite this regrettable decision" the close and mutually beneficial cooperation between Ireland and the Holy See "can continue" in the diplomatic world "based on shared commitment to justice, peace, international development and concern for the common good."
He concluded his statement by expressing the hope that the Irish Government would revisit its decision "as soon as possible", and would "again appoint a resident ambassador to the Holy See". Whether that happens, remains to be seen. Some observers even think that Ireland has blazed a trail that other European states may follow.
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