THE FORMER Progressive Democrat leader and party founder, Des O’Malley, has suggested that now is a good time for the Government to consider having just one embassy in Rome.
In a letter published in The Irish Timestoday, he said that in the past he had felt "our ambassador to Italy could fulfil in his spare time whatever duties pertained to the Vatican".
Mr O’Malley recalls how “a long time ago during one of the periodic bouts of government belt-tightening” he had suggested that one embassy in Rome was sufficient for Ireland. Though some ministers felt it might be a good idea, the Department of Foreign Affairs “was apparently outraged and described the suggestion as unthinkable”. Today he asks: “Might this not be a good time to reconsider my proposal?”
Meanwhile, Marie Collins, who was abused as a child by a priest of the Dublin archdiocese, has called for a public assurance from the Irish Bishops’ Conference that the “mental reservation” stratagem will never be used again by any bishop or priest of the Irish Catholic Church to mislead people. She has done so in an open letter to Cardinal Seán Brady, sent in advance of the bishops’ winter meeting in Maynooth next week.
In her letter, Ms Collins has pointed out that “the existence and use of a means to mislead and lie to individuals and the general public, known as mental reservation, was confirmed by a cardinal [Desmond Connell] of the Irish Catholic Church to the Commission of Investigation into the Dublin Archdiocese.”
She noted that two instances of “this method of misleading people” were mentioned in the Murphy report, one relevant to herself and the other to Andrew Madden. “There may be many more,” she said. “The people of the Catholic Church in Ireland deserve to know that this means of lying with an easy conscience will never again be used by any member of the Irish hierarchy or any other clerical member of the Catholic Church in Ireland.”
She asked “that the Irish Bishops’ Conference issue a public statement immediately giving this assurance to the Irish people”.
She continued: “This statement must be in clear language with no ambiguity and no use of mental reservation . . . If no such statement is made we can draw our own conclusions.”
A protest is planned to take place outside the papal nunciature on Dublin’s Navan Road at noon today.
The Voice of the Faithful group is to stage a protest.
Accompanied by an abuse survivor, they will hand in a copy of an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI calling for an inquiry “into the appalling failure of so many Catholic bishops in Ireland and abroad to protect children from clerical child sex abuse”.
They will present a statement protesting at the failure of the nunciature and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to respond “in a timely and appropriate manner” to the Murphy commission.