Sir, – According to Dick Reeves (November 19th) “the Holy See represents one of the last bits of tidying up after the struggle for the unification of Italy”. Why then does he think that Mussolini negotiated the Lateran Pacts with the Holy See in 1929 and chose to respect its independence in the second World War, even tolerating the presence of a resident British diplomatic mission in the Vatican? Mr Reeves suggests “other countries should now follow Ireland’s lead and close their embassies to the Vatican too”. I wonder what advice he would give to Italy itself which has always maintained a full embassy to the Holy See and, indeed, welcomed the current Pope on a state visit very soon after his inauguration? The savings which the Government hopes to make by closing embassies could more easily be made by substantial reductions in the inflated salaries and pensions currently enjoyed by serving and former ministers, presidents, judges and senior civil servants, many of whom are nowhere near the normal age of retirement.
Ireland’s diplomatic network is small compared with other European countries of comparable size and, if anything, needs to be expanded. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – There are good reasons why the Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore should be slow to reverse his courageous decision and be slow to agree to calls by the Conference of Religious Orders (Cori), to keep the Vatican embassy open. Cori requests that the Irish taxpayer should not be swayed by economic factors. Unfortunately these same orders were only too happy to be influenced by money matters when they persuaded previous government ministers, notably Michael Woods, to agree to indemnify them for redress for children in their institutions.
Cori claims the embassy “served us well over the decades.” Well it did not serve those 165,000 children who served in child labour camps and the Magdalene laundries. If anything, the very presence of the embassy served to reassure the Vatican that it need not worry as the Irish government would always support it and its world view. That willingness to support the Vatican view was reflected in the way in which the Irish state representatives colluded with clergy and the Vatican in the cover-up of abuse.
Now the Vatican is not interested in our economic meltdown. Indeed it probably expects us to contribute substantially in terms of security and other supports for the Eucharistic Congress in 2012. So here is the deal: we’ll say yes to the embassy and the Congress – provided that the Vatican pays its share towards all the costs that Irish taxpayers have incurred in order to find out the truth about abuse. The Ryan report cost €126 million, The Redress Board to date €1.3 billion, The Ferns report €2.3 million, the Murphy report €3.6 million to date and the Cloyne report €1.9 million.
The final costs will not be known until after Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn finishes his negotiations with the religious orders which ran the child labour camps.
All costs must be met by the Vatican before the Pope visits Ireland and kneels down to kiss Irish soil at Dublin Airport. Why should Irish taxpayers, torn asunder with the recession, pay for wrongs that they didn’t do? We have been more than generous to Rome. We know from the Ryan Report that some monies accrued from institutional child slave labour found its way to the Vatican bank. We know that money from the Peter’s Pence collections at weekend masses went to the Vatican. Bishops and priests houses are financed from church-goers, Mass cards etc. How much of that money went to the Vatican too? Now is the time for us Irish people to reclaim ourselves from the moral viewpoint and to reclaim from the Vatican what is morally and justifiably our money.
Not alone will this gesture from the Vatican aid in self-healing, it will also aid our debilitating economy. It will enhance our most-needed tourist industry.
So on with the pageantry of a papal visit, on with a sizeable contribution for past wrongs, on with the papal purse strings to finance the Eucharistic Congress. Then everything will be bellissimo. Otherwise it’s auf wiedersehen – better again, as we say in Ireland – Slán agus beannacht. – Yours, etc,