Government’s anti-Catholic agenda

TÁNAISTE Eamon Gilmore and his Cabinet colleagues have little to be proud of in announcing the closure of the Irish Embassy to the Holy See — depriving our majority Catholic population of a very revered lay tie with the Pontiff.

While admitting the Vatican embassy was one of Ireland’s oldest missions, Mr Gilmore’s excuse for its closure was: “it yielded no economic return and the Government was obliged to implement cuts to oblige EU/IMF rescue targets”.

This is incorrect. The Tánaiste puts the savings to the State for the closure of the Vatican mission at approximately €700,000 annually —- a sum that would scarcely cover the expense accounts of a handful of politicians.

The Vatican City is essentially an administrative centre but indirectly creates a massive tourism industry for this country, with tens of thousands of Irish people travelling there on a regular basis. The Vatican has always been a major centre for higher education of Roman Catholic clergy that has benefited thousands of Irish clergy academically and employment-wise. There is also a considerable trade between Ireland and the Vatican in publishing, religious literature and mementoes.

Money or trade is not an issue here, nor is clerical sex abuse. This Cabinet has a far more devious agenda and I’m very surprised the top prelates of the Church treat the interference and closure of the embassy so lightly — after nearly three-quarters of a century in existence. The Government already legislated in favour of much anti-Catholic liberalism and attempted to distance religion from our school curriculum.

Now, by dismantling the Vatican embassy, it’s attacking the very edifice of the Irish Catholic Church — depriving us of a lay mediator.

James Gleeson

Thurles

Co Tipperary