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	Time to Stop Bending the Knee to the Vatican The Herald July 15, 2011 http://www.herald.ie/opinion/time-to-stop-bending-the-knee-to-the-vatican-2822777.html Well done, first of all. When the Murphy Report on the Dublin Diocese was published, I (and others) suggested that the Papal Nuncio should be summoned to account for the behaviour of the Vatican then. But he wasn't. Your decision to demand accountability reflects, I think, the genuine anger of the people of Ireland at the disgraceful behaviour of the Holy See. The Cloyne Report makes it clear that the Vatican in effect encouraged bishops to reject the Irish church's own child-protection rules. Back in 1997 they wrote to Ireland's bishops basically telling them they should place the church's law above the law of the country. The consequence of that intervention was not just to ignore Ireland's sovereignty, but also to give comfort to people who were content to protect the child abusers in their midst. And of course it's not the first time the Vatican has behaved disgracefully. The Murphy Commission wrote to the Vatican several times when it was investigating the cover-up of child abuse that had gone on for years in the Dublin Diocese. The Holy See ignored a number of requests for information. In fact their only response was to write a letter to one of your predecessors, Tanaiste, complaining that the Murphy Commission had a cheek to write to them in the first place! So you were right to demand accountability, and there is no way you should let the matter drop until there is real accountability. I notice that some members of the Dail are already calling for the Nuncio to be expelled, and it may well have to come to that. Right now, though, I believe you should immediately take the step of permanently altering the relationship between Ireland and the Vatican. It's time to take the special status they have away from them -- now and forever. As you know, Tanaiste, the Papal Nuncio is supposed to be the Vatican's Ambassador to Ireland. But he (it's always going to be a he) is also the Pope's personal representative to the Catholic Church in Ireland. The Irish Bishops bend the knee to the Nuncio. I don't have any problem with the Bishops bending the knee to the Nuncio, but it is time that Ireland stopped doing it. In most countries in the world, the Head of the Diplomatic Corps -- the most senior foreign diplomat in the country -- is the one who has served longest in the country. In Ireland, and in some other countries, it's different. The Papal Nuncio is the head of the diplomatic corps here. He takes precedence over all other Ambassadors in all sorts of ways. The seniority rule is actually based on international law. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Article 16 specifies that the longest serving Ambassador is the most senior one. The only exception is if a country grants that privilege to the Holy See. We're one of those countries. We recognise the Pope's Ambassador as the most senior because (a) of the special position of the Catholic Church in Ireland and (b) the Vatican insists. That's always been absurd -- right now it's deeply offensive. Our relationships with the USA, UK, and EU are more important but their Ambassadors must be treated as inferior to the Ambassador from the Vatican. If that were to change, the Vatican would regard that as an insult. It would be seen as a serious and grave statement about the nature of the relationship between Ireland and Rome. We need to make that statement. The Vatican abused the special place it has in our foreign relations. Instead of offering help and sustenance to a country that needed to find out the truth about abuse, it spurned proper and appropriate enquiries. And now we know it was complicit in the flouting of our child protection standards and practices. At the very least it has forfeited the right to any special treatment.
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