The row over the Vatican embassy is a heady cocktail that mixes religion and politics, which would have not been contemplated by even the bravest of Irish Governments in the past.
John Cooney writes in The independentNow the refusal of Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore to reverse their decision to close Ireland’s embassy to the Vatican has mobilised the country’s Catholic faithful.
They are mystified as to why the nation’s two most senior politicians remain deaf to their pleas not to deprive them of their heavenly plot in Rome.
On an issue about prayers and votes, it remains inexplicable why Kenny and Gilmore are so dismissive of the wishes of massgoers.
It is a secular mystery of our times as to why the Coalition is ignoring the warnings. It overrides at its peril the silent constituency of rosary beads and daily prayers.
When logic is thrown out of the window, the least unreasonable explanation is surely that after just one year in government, the Fine Gael and Labour leaders are fooling themselves. They believe that a credulous public is prepared to swallow their mantra that the closure of the embassy to the Holy See looks well on the petty cash savings’ ledger.
Of the two leaders, Gilmore is the less damaged politically by insulting the Holy See. Conspiracy theorists, after all, regard Gilmore’s key henchmen, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn and Public Expenditure supremo Brendan Howlin, as secularisers.
Much more vulnerable from internal party criticism is the Taoiseach, whose fragile Fine Gael franchise is a mixture of 1930s flirtation with the fascist-minded Blueshirts and Dr Garret FitzGerald’s 1980s brand of Christian social democracy…
The article concludes:
As he weighs up the pros and cons of whether to come to Ireland in June, Pope Benedict must be praying for papal infallibility to be extended to an understanding of the euro-pinching attitude of Kenny and Gilmore.
The German pontiff must recall fondly his triumphant visits to Scotland and England, and re-read with approval the declaration of British Prime Minister David Cameron that Britain is a Christian country.
The birth of Charles Dickens 200 years ago is celebrated in Britain today, where a poll has found that the most popular character created by the scribe’s fertile pen was Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserable miser.
In Ireland today the Taoiseach and Tanaiste are competing with each other for the role of a Celtic Ebenezer Scrooge, with their persistent disclaimers that the closure of Ireland’s embassy to the Holy See was purely intended to save the taxpayer a few euro.
Unrepentant humbug pedlars.