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Posted on 11/04/2011 7:02:26 AM PDT by decimon
Catholic Ireland's stunning decision to close its embassy to the Vatican is a huge blow to the Holy See's prestige and may be followed by other countries which feel the missions are too expensive, diplomatic sources said on Friday.
The closure brought relations between Ireland and the Vatican, once ironclad allies, to an all-time low following the row earlier this year over the Irish Church's handling of sex abuse cases and accusations that the Vatican had encouraged secrecy.
Ireland will now be the only major country of ancient Catholic tradition without an embassy in the Vatican.
"This is really bad for the Vatican because Ireland is the first big Catholic country to do this and because of what Catholicism means in Irish history," said a Vatican diplomatic source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
>> what have they done with it?
There never seems to be a shortage of funds with which to pay off the victims of pedophile priests. The amounts would bankrupt any ordinary corporation (ref: Dow Corning and breast implants). Do you really want to go there?
Whatever the catholics want to do, or build, or wherever they want to go, it happens. Where does all that dough come from?
Similarly, that tight vatican budget is an accounting artifact. They’re a little over this year, a little behind last year... overall, they have enough. If the vatican ever needed a big infusion of dough, the call would go out to the bishops worldwide... and the money would appear. Prove it ain’t so.
>> Isn’t it tiresome how the Catholic Bashers crawl out yadda yadda
The same could be said for the rabid catholic sycophants for whom any word or deed from the pope and his underlings is beyond mortal question.
No, that's boring. How about this: prove you're not Obama's gay lover. C'mon, big guy -- can you prove that negative?
>> can you prove that negative?
Yep, I certainly can.
Now you go.
Fear and trembling, indeed. You need to worry about that plank in your eye, pal.
Well, that’s your pea-brained conclusion, and wrong though it is, you’re certainly entitled to it if it makes you feel better.
My mileage varies, thank you.
It's bankrupted a number of dioceses already, or haven't you been paying attention?
Just as an interesting factoid, if you count assets per capita, the Mormons can buy and sell the Catholic Church many times over.
Settlements have been handled by each diocese and their own insurance, etc. A quick word about Church organization. A diocese is operationally and financially independent of Rome. So, when a new school or seminary needs to be built, those monies must come from the diocese and its donors, not from Rome.
While the story of abuse by priests has been large, and the victims numerous, it has also involved cases that are sometimes 40+ years old, and outside of the statute of limitations, therefore, no settlements. In other words, there are more stories than settlements.
The Roman Catholic Church is not a monolith. It is composed of 23 autonomous churches (think Eastern), and 2795 diocese (Vatican, Annuario Pontificio 2009, p. 1172).
Finally, what would it matter if Pope requested, and received additional monies? Perhaps it would mean more food for the starving, medicine for the sick, care for the aged, education for the ignorant. Would you be opposed to such things?
Thanks for the perspective.
OK, by way of reparation, I want to observe that for 2,000 years Rome has seen them all come and go. Unless Jesus returns first, the Holy See will be known and honored for centuries when the Irish Republic is gone and forgotten.
Once again the Irish state shows its Jacobin/socialist origins.
I appreciate your even-tempered and fact-rich answer, and I’ll think on it.
Thanks and FRegards
Sowwy Romulus just had to do that! Love it when Protestants talk about the "secret archives" like they should be on Coast to Coast AM or in an episode of the X Files.
Now you’ve done it. A team of albino assassin monks has been dispatched.
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“The Holy See gets by on a very tight budget, if you care to know the truth.”
You can have a tight budget and still have immense wealth. The two things are not necessarily related. If you want to convince people that the Vatican is poor, you’ll need to do a lot better than that. They own 15% of the stocks on just the Italian stock market alone.
Bah, sure they have lots of real estate, but they also have billions and billions in more liquid investments.
just a passing thought....
Protestants complain about how much money the Vatican has, well just how much do those Protestant mega churches have? Names like Benny Hinn who I am sure is a fraud. Remember when Jim Bakker was busted? The air conditioned dog houses? Yea it is okay when they have money and spend it on them selves.
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