Obama Administration’s Closing Of Vatican Embassy ‘Slap In The Face’ To Catholics

The Obama administration plans to shut down the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican and relocate offices onto the grounds of the much larger American Embassy in Italy.

In the wake of the attack in Benghazi, Libya, the move is justified primarily on the grounds of enhanced security, John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter wrote. Cost savings is said to be a factor as well, with the State Department estimating $1.4 million a year will be saved by relocating.

The Vatican traditionally has insisted that countries maintain embassies in distinct locations as a way of underscoring its autonomy, NCR reported.

It’s a “massive downgrade of U.S.-Vatican ties,” former U.S. Ambassador James Nicholson told NCR. “It’s turning this embassy into a stepchild of the embassy to Italy. The Holy See is a pivot point for international affairs and a major listening post for the United States, and … [it’s] an insult to American Catholics and to the Vatican.”

More