Columnist decries Irish government’s decision to close Vatican embassy
November 04, 2011
Irish columnist David Quinn argues that the decision by his country’s government to close its embassy at the Holy See was “petty and immature.”
The Irish government said that the embassy was closed as a budget-cutting measure, since relations with the Vatican do not involve important economic interests. Quinn rejects that explanation, noting: “If economic factors were really the overriding criteria, then why do we have an embassy in tiny Lesotho, for example, a country with which we have very few historic or cultural ties?”
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Posted by: -
Nov. 05, 2011 3:20 PM ET USA
The embassy at Lesothos is undoubtedly meant to give a job to a relative of some high mucky-muck in the government.
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Posted by: jeremiahjj -
Nov. 05, 2011 1:17 PM ET USA
Apparently David Quinn doesn't understand diplomatic language. Like a politician withdrawing from a political campaign to "spend more time with his family," what isn't said is more important. I understand the message Ireland is conveying -- the government is telling the church to clean out its closets if it expects the country to open its embassy again. Bringing Bernard Cardinal Law from Boston to Rome tells me the church still doesn't understand the gravity of the problem.
