Scottish Catholic Observer

Cardinal Seán Brady has indicated his ‘profound disappointment’ at the Irish Government’s announcement that it is closing the Irish Embassy in the Vatican but the Holy See spokesman has said that diplomatic relations between Ireland and the Vatican are not in question.

Eamon Gilmore, Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs (above), stated the decision to close the embassy, along with two other offices was a part of government cost-cutting plans.

Making the announcement yesterday, Mr Gilmore said that although the embassy was one of Ireland’s ‘oldest missions’ it yielded ‘no economic return’ and the decision was made with the ‘greatest regret.’

End of an era

Cardinal Brady, the primate of all Ireland, said, however, that the decision ‘means that Ireland will be without a resident ambassador to the Holy See for the first time since diplomatic relations were established and envoys were exchanged between the two states in 1929.’

“I know that many others will share this disappointment,” the cardinal said following the announcement of the closure. “This decision seems to show little regard for the important role played by the Holy See in international relations and of the historic ties between Irish people and the Holy See over many centuries.”

Mr Gilmore said that the Irish Government believes that Ireland’s interests with the Holy See ‘can be sufficiently represented by a non-resident ambassador.’

Along with the Vatican, the Irish embassy in Iran and a representative office in Timor Leste, formerly East Timor which is a predominantly Catholic country lying between Australia and Indonesia, will also shut.

Troubles

The decision to shut the Irish embassy to the Vatican comes after the Papal Nuncio, the Vatican’s representative in Ireland, was recalled in July following the impact of the Cloyne Report into clerical abuse. Mr Gilmore insisted the closure was not as a result of the report’s controversy.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said: “Naturally, every state that has diplomatic relations with the Holy See is free to decide, on the basis of its possibilities and its interests, whether to have an ambassador to the Holy See resident in Rome or in another country.

“What’s important are the diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the states, and these are not in question with regard to Ireland.”