Sir, – I do not share Fr Vincent Twomey’s view (Opinion, November 10th) that the decision to close the Irish Embassy in the Vatican “should be a cause of concern . . . for all citizens”.
Rather do I believe that the Government has stumbled onto a much bigger issue, The Holy See represents one of the last bits of tidying up after the struggle for the unification of Italy. It is sobering to be reminded, as we were in An Irishman’s Diary (November 4th), that the Papal States fielded an army against Garibaldi in the mid-1800s.
When the Papal States were in full throttle you could understand why a Papal diplomatic service might be required. But, today as it is, the Roman Catholic Church possesses, through its network of cardinals, archbishops and bishops, an awe-inspiring structure to govern the faithful and look out for their interests.
Why does the Vatican, which no longer has – and never should have had – temporal interests, need a further layer of expensive diplomacy?
Other governments should now follow Ireland’s lead and close their embassies to the Vatican too – or, at least, signal to the Vatican that their embassies in Rome will be accredited to the Holy See. The Roman Catholic Church’s steadfast insistence on separate accreditation is a baleful signal that it hasn’t really dropped its aspirations to temporal power at all. – Yours, etc,