Poor Ireland – it just can’t escape from the Vatican, it seems. It can try but then the theocrats will raise a stink and it will be dragged back.
The Irish government faces a potential Holy War over the decision to close the country’s Vatican embassy.
Coalition party leaders Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore are at loggerheads over the closure, announced after the attack by Kenny on the Vatican’s failure to act on child abuse in the Cloyne diocese.
Kenny has given in to calls from Fine Gael backbenchers to reconsider the decision to remove the Irish embassy from the Vatican.
The calls also come from a group called, risibly, Ireland Stand Up. Yes Ireland stand up and grovel to the Vatican again!
An Irish Catholic lay group has met with politicians to voice their frustration over the closure of Ireland’s embassy to the Vatican.
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The protesters, from the group Ireland Stand Up, met with 50 TDs, 25 senators, and seven representatives of ministers in Dublin.
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Ireland Stand Up also asked that the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny issue a formal invitation to Pope Benedict XVI to visit Dublin during the International Eucharistic Congress this summer.
Stand up the better to fall prostrate. Ooooookay.
[smothered laughter] The link to Ireland Stand Up goes to a twitter account! It has 400 followers – I have more than that! So…82 politicians met with a Twitter group? That’s hilarious.
Anyway, Fine Gael apparently takes them seriously.
TANAISTE Eamon Gilmore is facing growing demands from Fine Gael backbenchers for a rethink about his closure of the Ireland’s Vatican Embassy.
The closure has cast doubt over the prospects of the Pope coming here in summer for the Eucharistic Congress.
The decision to close the embassy is particularly sensitive in Fine Gael, with some party sources privately suggesting Taoiseach Enda Kenny should not have allowed it to happen.
But why? Why this slavish love for the Catholic church and the Vatican? Given the history, why on earth? Does the Vatican act as if it loves its dear Irish subjects?
Maybe it’s a new syndrome, to go with Stockholm Syndrome. We could call it Dublin Syndrome.