VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register
by ANDREA GAGLIARDUCCI/CNA/EWTN NEWS 05/08/2014
VATICAN CITY — After years of tension, news that Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has invited Pope Francis to visit the country may be a sign that relations between the Holy See and Ireland are returning to normal.
Within just months of the re-opening of Ireland’s Vatican embassy, Prime Minister Kenny announced the invitation to the Pope at a press conference held at the Irish College in Rome April 27.
According to The Irish Times, the prime minister said he told Pope Francis that his papacy had brought about “an extraordinary difference to the perception of the Catholic Church,” and that in Ireland now there is “a clearer and healthier relationship between Church and State.”
Ireland’s government announced on Jan. 21 the re-opening of its embassy to the Holy See in Rome, which had been closed in November of 2011 due to what was claimed to be economic reasons.
The decision to close the embassy at the time, and thus not have a resident diplomat, came after years of friction between Holy See and Ireland especially with regard to local sex abuse scandals.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.