Holy See mission closure lacked foresight

The Government intends to open a ‘scaled-down’ diplomatic mission to the Holy See, which it closed ostensibly to ‘save money’.

The rationale for the closure was never terribly convincing, especially after the failure of diplomacy to engage the authority and collaboration of the Holy See in major State investigations into child sex abuse by hundreds of priests.

We have a new Pope, who is acclaimed by the flock, and he is busily overhauling Vatican bureaucracy.

But what strategic influence could Ireland possibly derive by transferring the role of ambassador to the Holy See from the personal mandate of the highly experienced, and distinguished, secretary-general of the Department of Foreign Affairs to a more junior, and less experienced, diplomat, who is expected to operate alone in a system governed through status, rank and rigid boundaries of hierarchy?

Myles Duffy

Glenageary

Co Dublin