Plans to move the U.S. embassy to the Vatican onto the grounds of the
larger American embassy to Italy, though in a separate building and
with a distinct entrance, are drawing fire from five former American
envoys despite the tacit consent of the Vatican itself.
Justified primarily on the grounds of enhanced security, the move is
described by former U.S. Ambassador James Nicholson, who's also a former
Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Bush administration and a former
chair of the Republican National Committee, as a "massive downgrade" in
U.S./Vatican ties.
"It's turning this embassy into a stepchild of the embassy to Italy," Nicholson said.
"The Holy See is a pivot point for international affairs and a major
listening post for the United States," he said, "and to shoehorn [the
U.S. delegation] into an office annex inside another embassy is an
insult to American Catholics and to the Vatican."
Nicholson, who spoke in an interview Wednesday with NCR,
joins former Bush envoys Francis Rooney and Mary Ann Glendon as well as
Raymond Flynn, the first Clinton ambassador, and Thomas Melady, who
served the first President Bush, in objecting.
"In the diplomatic world, if you don't have your own separate space,
you're on the road to nowhere," said Rooney, who served as ambassador
from 2005 to 2008. He's author of The Global Vatican, a new book on U.S./Vatican relations.
While the move has not yet been publicly announced, a contract for
renovations to the new facility has been awarded, and it's tentatively
scheduled to open in January 2015.
The embassy is presently located in a
building near Rome's Circus Maximus, roughly 3 miles away from the
other American diplomatic facilities in the city.
Although the Vatican traditionally has insisted that countries
maintain embassies in distinct locations as a way of underscoring its
autonomy, signals in this case suggest it won't protest the relocation.
On background, a senior Vatican official told NCR on Monday
that safety is a "real concern," especially in the wake of a lethal June
2012 assault on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that
claimed the lives of an American ambassador and three other officials.
A
U.S. State Department report after that assault recommended
consolidating facilities wherever possible.
As long as the embassy remains "completely separate" from other U.S.
missions, the Vatican official said, the new site represents a tolerable
exception to normal practice.
The current and former Vatican ambassadors of the Obama
administration as well as a senior official of the U.S. State Department
all told NCR the move is primarily about security. They also
say the move will bring cost savings and improved facilities and will
not be accompanied by cuts in personnel or resources.
"I see no diminishing in the importance of the relationship at all," said current U.S. Ambassador Ken Hackett.
In truth, Hackett said, "the relationship between the Vatican and the
U.S. government hasn't been better than it is right now in quite a
while," especially under Pope Francis.
That view was echoed by the State Department official.
"Having the embassy close to the other missions gives it greater stature," the official said, who was authorized to speak to NCR
on background. "It makes it central to everything the U.S. is doing in
Italy and the region rather than being out of sight and out of mind."
Especially given the global interest in Francis, the official said, "If anything, we anticipate intensifying our relationship."
Hackett and others note that a few other countries, such as Israel,
have always had their embassies in Rome at the same location while
others, such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, have recently
combined them.
Those assurances, however, haven't mollified the critics. Nicholson rejected the security argument, calling it a "smokescreen."
"That's like saying people get killed on highways because they drive
cars on them," he said. "We're not a pauper nation ... if we want to
secure an embassy, we certainly can."
He said protection at the current
location is "state of the art."
Flynn described the move as part of broader secular hostility to religious groups, the Catholic church in particular.
"It's not just those who bomb churches and kill Catholics in the
Middle East who are our antagonists, but it's also those who restrict
our religious freedoms and want to close down our embassy to the Holy
See," Flynn told NCR.
Flynn said he can't see any "diplomatic or political benefit to the
United States" from the relocation and called it "shortsighted."
Melady told NCR that no matter how the move is justified, it will be perceived in diplomatic circles as scaling back.
"Whether that's the official reason doesn't really matter, because that's how people will see it," Melady said.
Hackett called those perceptions off-base. Among other points, he
said, the new facilities include better office space and the ability to
host small conferences involving 30 to 40 participants.
All told, Hackett said, the new site will give visitors the
impression that the United States is "serious" about engaging the
Vatican.
The idea of moving the embassy has been around for at least a decade.
Under former Ambassador to Italy Mel Sembler, who represented President
George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, the U.S. acquired a large building
and other property adjacent to the embassy to Italy, located on Rome's
upscale Via Veneto.
The third U.S. embassy in Rome, a mission to the Food and Agriculture
Organization and other U.N. agencies, moved into that compound in early
2012.
Both Nicholson and Rooney said moving the Vatican embassy to the same
location was floated during their tenures, and both resisted it on the
grounds that the delegation to the Vatican needs its own identity,
including a separate physical location.
After the Benghazi attack, momentum for moving the embassy gathered
steam. Those conversations took place toward the end of the term of
former Ambassador Miguel Diaz, who represented Obama from 2009 to 2012.
"There are really serious issues in terms of protecting U.S.
diplomatic personnel," Diaz said.
He said the move is "absolutely not a
downgrade."
Diaz said it will promote collaboration among the three American
embassies in Rome, creating "more possibilities to do what we want to
do."
Hackett said the Vatican embassy no longer will have to pay the
annual lease on its present location, which he estimated at between
$600,000 and $1 million.
Officials say once it's operational, the new
facility will have separate signage and a separate entrance on Rome's
Via Salustina, marking it as a distinct diplomatic operation.
Glendon disputed the notion that the United States ought to cite what
other countries have done as precedent, saying the importance of the
relationship merits its own location and profile.
"Both [the U.S. and the Vatican] are global actors," she said. "The
Holy See's sphere of concern, like that of the United States, is
worldwide."
Diaz suggested that since much of the blowback is coming from
representatives of Republican presidents, it may have a partisan edge.
"We need to look at the evidence and the facts rather than politicizing this move," Diaz said.
Nicholson disputed that charge, noting that his initial objections
were lodged under the Bush administration while a fellow Republican was
the ambassador to Italy.
"There's no partisan motivation on my part," Nicholson said. "I've
served there, I know the importance of this post, and I know the damage
that will be done."
Although the State Department official described the decision as a
fait accompli, Nicholson said he still hopes it can be reversed.
"They like to use the term 'reset' in talking about diplomacy, and I
think this is something that can be 'reset,' " he said, saying he's had
conversations with political leaders "on both sides of the aisle" in an
effort to roll it back.
The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See also maintains an official residence
for the ambassador, a picturesque 19th-century building known as the
Villa Richardson rented from the American Academy on Rome's Janiculum
Hill, which is often used for receptions and other events.
Officials say
there's no plan to change that residence.