Holy See rift not for economic reasons

Charlie Flanagan TD, chairman of the Fine Gael parliamentary party, said the closing of our embassy to the Holy See could be reviewed once we had an economic upturn.

This claim, which intimates the closure was for economic reasons, is at variance with fact. The closure was because of the Vatican’s alleged interference in Ireland’s sovereign affairs.

Mr Flanagan and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said the Vatican had conspired to break the law in this State with regard to the revelations in the Cloyne Report on the handling by Catholic Church authorities of allegations of child sexual abuse, and further called for the expulsion of the papal nuncio, saying the Vatican had been complicit in the concealment of a crime.