INDIA, November 7, 2011 (The Hindu): Dublin-Vatican relations are at an all-time low. Ireland’s decision to close its embassy in the Vatican for “economic reasons” has both stunned and infuriated the Holy See, especially since other closures — now that Catholic Ireland has shown the way — are likely to follow.
The Irish decision has brought relations between Dublin and the Vatican, once very close and considered unbreakable, to an all-time low. Besides economic considerations, which, given the present state of the Irish economy are real enough, there is simmering anger in Dublin over the Vatican’s protracted cover-up of priests who sexually abused children in their care.
An unnamed Vatican source speaking to the Reuters agency said: “This is really bad for the Vatican because Ireland is the first big Catholic country to do this and because of what Catholicism means in Irish history.” The Vatican attempted to put up a brave face on these developments, masking its disappointment in a communique which said every state 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 is important is diplomatic relations between the Holy See and states, and these are not in question with regard to Ireland.”