DIPLOMACY: THE DEPARTMENT of Foreign Affairs says the
Government’s demand for a response from the Vatican to the Cloyne report
will not be hampered by the fact that Ireland currently has no
ambassador to the Holy See.
The previous ambassador, Noel Fahey,
retired last month, and Ireland’s interests in the Vatican are currently
represented by Helena Kelleher, first secretary at the Embassy.
Mr
Fahey would be replaced promptly in normal circumstances but because of
the strained relations with the Vatican and the economic crisis, no
action has yet been taken on an appointment.
A spokesman for the
department said yesterday the absence of an Irish ambassador would not
be a factor that affected communications between Ireland and the Holy
See.
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore last
week called in the papal nuncio, Giuseppe Leanza, a day after the
publication of the Cloyne report and has demand a considered response
from the Vatican.
He said he expected this to come “in a reasonable timeframe”.
The
department spokesman pointed out that the Vatican’s reply was expected
to come through the papal nuncio in Ireland rather than through the
Irish Embassy in the Vatican as this was the channel of communication
opened by the Government with the Holy See.
He said no response had yet been received from the Vatican.
Last
December it emerged from US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks that
earlier requests for information from the Murphy commission caused
offence in the Vatican.
The Vatican believed the government “failed to
respect and protect Vatican sovereignty during the investigations,” the
cables disclosed.
In 2006, the commission, which was then
investigating the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in
the Dublin archdiocese, wrote to the Vatican’s Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith seeking information on reports of clerical child
sex abuse sent to it by the archdiocese.
The congregation did not reply.
Similar
requests by the commission to the papal nuncio in Dublin were also
ignored.
Instead then Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio
Bertone, wrote to the Irish Embassy, advising that any requests related
to the investigation should come through diplomatic channels.