Posted on 11/24/2013 2:21:20 PM PST by marshmallow
The United States is scaling back its diplomatic mission at the Vatican—making plans to close its Vatican Embassy headquarters, and instead conduct its operations in a smaller building within the walls of the U.S. Embassy to Italy.
The Obama Administration cites “security concerns” following the attack in Benghazi, and claims that they can better protect embassy staff in a consolidated compound. According to government authorities, once construction is completed in 2015, the Vatican Embassy will have a separate entrance and it will be apparent that it is a completely separate operation.
But many Catholics—among them five former U.S. Ambassadors to the Holy See—strongly disagree, calling the plan a “massive downgrade” in U.S./Vatican relations.
Former U.S. Ambassador James Nicholson, who served as Secretary of Veterans Affairs under George W. Bush and as chairman of the Republican National Committee, said, “It’s turning this embassy into a stepchild of the embassy to Italy.” Speaking to National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen, Ambassador Nicholson said:
“The Holy See is a pivot point for international affairs and a major listening post for the United States, and to shoehorn [the U.S. delegation] into an office annex inside another embassy is an insult to American Catholics and to the Vatican.”
(Excerpt) Read more at patheos.com ...
Another slap in the face to Catholics by the Obama administration.
Granted America is a target around the world, but I don't see this as being Benghazi.
When Noriega was holed up in the Vatican Legation in Panama in 1990. He was safe as long as the embassy shield was displayed. When the Diplomatic staff left, they took the shield, and Noriega's protection with it. When they left, the Vatican Legation was just another building,and the U.S. Army could waltz in and detain Ol' Pineapple Face.
I was stationed at the U.S. embassy in Rome 1976-1979. At that time, the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican was a single office, right across the hallway from mine. I never once saw the Ambassador, a member of the Lodge family IIRC. About the time I left, the U.S. Embassy officially opened in the Vatican itself.
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How ironic. Haven’t several Catholic institutions recently won court cases regarding obamacare?
It makes no sense to have an American “embassy” to the Roman Catholic Church, unless the U.S. is going to have an “embassy” to whatever HQ there is to any other major religious denomination.
>>>...the Vatican Embassy will have a separate entrance and it will be apparent that it is a completely separate operation.>>>
It will still be part of the overall building. I hope the Catholic church is hiring many experts to clear the walls of all bugging devices.
Just to be clear, our Holy See embassy is actually outside the Vatican, across the river near the Circus Maximus. Our Italian embassy is a little bit north of them, up toward the Villa Borghese. That said, they’ve apparently managed separated that way for the last twenty or thirty years, and whatever the Italians and we are doing for security has worked. And the problem with Benghazi wasn’t so much that Stevens and them were away from the embassy in Tripoli as that their security got breached and then the guys up the chain left them hanging. That’s what needs to be fixed more than bringing our Holy See post into Fort Apache, Via Veneto. Because if that’s not fixed, those poor suckers can get screwed just as easily in Fort Apache as where they are now.
interesting stuff, thanks!
well aware of this.
This administration is continuing its anti-christian assaults.
Some idiot U.S. Army colonel on the ground in Panama City heard rumors that weapons were stashed in the Nicaraguan Embassy there. He ordered his soldiers to break into the embassy to search for the weapons. That was a flagrant violation of International Law, an invasion of a sovereign nation. I don't know what happened to that colonel, but he should've lost his commission, been busted back to E-1 and sentenced to a long tour on the Leavenworth Rock Hockey team. In retaliation, Ortega declared several of the U.S. Embassy in Managua Personae Non Grata. I saw several of my colleagues from Embassy Managua on TV being escorted on to a bus going to the airport.
Quite interesting. Yikes!
The embassy isn’t to the Church per se but to the Vatican City State, which is all that is left of the Papal States—109 acres that are a sovereign nation, and not part of Italy. It is much diminished, but the nation has existed in one way or another for 1257 years (see my post 35 above). If the head of another denomination also happened to be head of a state, it would make sense to have an ambassador to that state.
The Pope does pack some additional punch as well, usually being well-respected, the spiritual leader of more than a billion, and alleged to have good connections on high, all of which are reasons to give more weight to the position than to ambassadorships to other very small states.
Don’t you usually recall your ambassador right before you go to war....... Who would expect Obama to go to war against the Church ???? Hmmmmmm
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Now we sell out the Catholics?
Hope you win. That’s even something I’d pray for.
Thank you for that. Was there by chance a Pepin the Long?
“The embassy isn’t to the Church per se but to the Vatican City State, which is all that is left of the Papal States—109 acres that are a sovereign nation, and not part of Italy. It is much diminished, but the nation has existed in one way or another for 1257 years (see my post 35 above). If the head of another denomination also happened to be head of a state, it would make sense to have an ambassador to that state.”
Fictional non-rational excuses. Fictional in how the tiny remnant of land comprising Vatican City because of the deal the Italian government made with the Roman Catholic Church, and leaving scrap of sovereignty to that tiny spot of land is not - at this point in civilized history - a rational reason for an American embassy there and that is in fact ONLY an excuse, and NOT a cause or a reason. IT IS IN FACT an embassy to the Roman Catholic Church, and it should not be so, as we have no “embassy” to any other Church denomination. I am not being “discriminatory” to Roman Catholics in saying that. It is being “discriminatory” to all other faiths and Churches to have an American embassy to Roman Catholics.
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