‘Francis effect’ leads Ireland to reopen embassy

Senior diplomatic and church figures have cited the effect of Pope Francis on the Irish Government’s decision this week to re-open its Vatican embassy just over two years after ministers decided to close it down.

Seán Donlon, the former secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs, told The Tablet: “There is a ‘Francis effect’. It would have been very difficult to keep the embassy closed at a time when there is a sense of great spiritual renewal, particularly at international levels.” Mr Donlon, who opposed the decision to close the Irish Embassy to the Holy See in November 2011, added: “The focus [under Pope Francis] is going to shift away from the traditional negative attitude towards the Vatican, to a positive one.” 

The closure of the embassy shocked the Vatican, which prides itself on good diplomatic relations. At the time, the Government said the move was due to cost-cutting but it took place within a context of criticism of the Vatican’s handling of the issue of clerical sexual abuse. A government-commissioned inquiry into abuse in the Diocese of Cloyne, for ­example, had cited a Vatican letter that said Irish bishops’ guidelines for mandatory ­reporting of abuse were not binding.

Following the publication of the Cloyne report, the Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, launched an unprecedented attack in the Dáil on the Vatican for downplaying abuse scandals. He said: “The rape and torture of children were downplayed or ‘managed’ to uphold instead the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and reputation.” Following  the comments, the then nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, was recalled.

But Tuesday’s announcement of the re-opening of the embassy marks a renewal of Irish-Vatican relations. Eamon Gilmore, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, who approved the embassy’s previous closure, cited Pope Francis when announcing the decision to reopen. “This will enable Ireland to engage directly with the leadership of Pope Francis on the issues of poverty eradication, hunger and human rights,” Mr Gilmore said.

Commentators have noted that Pope Francis has reasserted the Holy See’s trad­itional “soft power”, with the peace vigil for Syria organised in the Vatican last September cited as an example.

The new Vatican embassy will focus on international development and be “modest”, the Department of Foreign Affairs said, with a staff of just one. It will be situated in a separate building from the Irish Embassy to Rome, which is now in the same location that housed the old Embassy to the Holy See, Villa Spada. The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, welcomed the news. He pointed out that Pope Francis has dedicated himself to being a strong voice for fighting poverty.

The Church has been lobbying in recent months for the Government to overturn its decision on the embassy at the Church-State structured dialogue. Cardinal Seán Brady, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, said: “The question of the reopening of the Embassy to the Holy See was one of the issues raised by our delegation at the meeting of that dialogue in Government Buildings last January.” Another senior diplomatic source said: “This was an inevitable move and the ‘Francis effect’ has provided a useful opportunity to reverse what was not the best decision. I am not surprised at this U-turn.”

The Irish Government also announced it will be opening new embassies in Bangkok, Jakarta, Zagreb and Nairobi and consulates in Austin (Texas), São Paulo and Hong Kong.