Ireland, Germany

Ireland: Cardinal Brady, “a decision to be reviewed”Diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Ireland “are not endangered”. This was specified by the director of the Vatican News Room, father Federico Lombardi, about Ireland’s decision to close down its embassy to the Holy See, a post that for has been vacant for some time after the relocation of the ambassador, Noel Fahey. Officially, it has been closed down for “economic reasons”. “Obviously – Father Lombardi’s notice reads – any State having diplomatic relations with the Holy See is free to decide according to its own means and interests whether to have an ambassador to the Holy See residing in Rome or somewhere else. What matters are the diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the other states, and those with Ireland are not endangered”. Card. Séan Brady, archbishop of Armagh and primate of Ireland, has expressed his “profound disappointment”. In a written statement the archbishop told that the Irish Foreign Minister, Eamon Gilmore, called the cardinal to personally tell him about the decision taken by his Government abd explained that “this was an unpleasant but necessary decision in the light of the current economic situation and has nothing to do with the recent exchanges between the Government and the Holy See”. He meant the sex abuse scandal, about which the Irish Government had specifically asked the Holy See for explanations. “I wish to express my deep disappointment such decision – card. Brady stated -. It means that Ireland will have no accredited ambassador to the Holy See for the first time since 1929, when diplomatic relations were established between the two States. I know – the archbishop added – that many others share such disappointment”. “Such decision – the Catholic primate of Ireland goes on – seems not to give due consideration to the important role played by the Holy See in international relations and to the historical bonds that have existed for centuries between the Irish population and the Holy See”. In his statement, the cardinal recalls that, “for the new State of Ireland, the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1929 was an extremely significant moment. It was extremely important to assert the identity and presence of the Free State of Ireland on an international scale. “I hope – he added – that, despite this unpleasant step, the close and mutually beneficial cooperation between Ireland the Holy See in the world of diplomacy may go on, based on their shared efforts towards justice, peace, international development and concern for the common good. I am looking forward to a time when the Government will appoint a new accredited ambassador to the Holy See. I hope today’s decision may be revised as soon as possible and that it may be addressed during the next meeting between the Church and the State”.Germany: common endeavours with the Holy See”Your visit to your homeland has been able further to consolidate the excellent state of relations between the Holy See and the Federal Republic of Germany”, said Reinhard Schweppe, new German ambassador to the Holy See, in presenting his Letters of Credence to Benedict XVI on 7 November. The ambassador, on touching on themes that are common to the Holy See and Germany, cited the determination “to serve peace in the world as member with equal rights of a united Europe” and the appeal to “listen to the language of nature and respond to it in a consistent way”: an appeal that meets in Germany with “a widely shared willingness to seek a new style in the management of the creation and of the environment”. In Germany “Church and State are separate” but “the Church is not a parallel society”, pointed out the ambassador, citing the common endeavour of Germany and the Holy See “to support the universal rights of man”, protect “the destiny of Christian minorities throughout the world” and foster the “dialogue between religions and cultures”. “The social market economy that has been consolidated in Germany for years, owes a great deal to Catholic social doctrine”, added Schweppe. Benedict XVI, replying to the ambassador, underlined that the Church has the “duty” to defend the dignity of man, because “only a society that unconditionally respects and defends the dignity of each and every person, from conception to natural death, can claim to be a human society”. If a society, explained the Pope, “should decide to select those of its members most in need of protection, and exclude persons from their right to be treated as persons, it would behave in a profoundly inhuman way, and also lack credibility in response to the equality of dignity of all persons in every stage of life that is self-evident to every person of good will”. The Pope then cited “a critical aspect that, through materialistic and hedonistic tendencies, seems to be gaining ground especially in the Western countries, namely, the gender discrimination against women”. “The time has come – he said – to take energetic steps to curb prostitution, as also the huge diffusion of material with an erotic and pornographic content, also through the internet”. The Holy See, for its part, declared Benedict XVI, will strive to ensure that “the necessary intervention of the Catholic Church in Germany against this kind of abuse takes place in a firmer and clearer manner”.