Frank speech by the German ambassador to Dublin tweaked Irish sensibilities. Frankness and dialogue are to commended, though, to states as they foster secularization. The Church though must be free to bear witness to the Truth.

By Martin Barillas

Diplomats, it has been said, are normally chosen for their cleverness with words but what passes for “diplomacy”. This would seem to mean may choose words and phrasings that please listeners and cajole them into accepting the position of his masters in the home country. A diplomat is someone who, unlike a soldier, is prepared to lie rather than die for his country.

In Ireland a kafuffle has emerged over Christian Pauls, ambassador of Germany to Dublin, who tweaked Irish sensibilities in a bluff speech he gave on September 7 to a group of 80 prospective German investors meeting at historic Clontarf Castle. Speaking in unscripted German to his compatriots, the Teuton emissary was interpreted into English for the Irish present as saying that Ireland is a “coarse” place. According to reports in the Irish Times and The Independent, Ambassador Pauls also took the time to criticize the role played by the Catholic Church in Ireland’s history, while also taking a swipe at its traffic circulation laws. He made light of the large size of the bureaucracy in the Irish Republic while saying that plenty of physicians in Germany would be happy to earn the €200,000 per year salary spurned by many of their Irish counterparts.

Present at the speech was Gay Mitchell, Irish representative to the European Parliament and member of the Fine Gael party, criticized the ambassador’s remarks, saying that the diplomat’s remarks were "somewhere between resentment and spite", according to the Irish Times.

Ambassador Pauls later avoided offering an abject apology by offering his regrets over any misunderstanding by blaming a flub by his interpreter. In a statement recorded by the Irish Times, Pauls is said to have denied using the German equivalent of the word “coarse” in describing the land of the Gaels and whether Irish society had become a rougher and less-caring one as a result of economic gains over the last decade. He said that his mistake was to assume that a question-and-answer session would ensue and allow for clarification of his “quite black and white, yes, even provocative” talk. He promised to be less "blunt, loud and fast" in future public utterances. On Irish television, Ambassador Pauls acknowledged how the Irish may feel about how his remarks were broadcast, saying that if he were Irish “I would have said 'he is a complete idiot', which I don't think I am," adding that the affair was a tempest in a teacup.

For his remarks, Ambassador Pauls received a rebuke from the Irish Foreign Ministry, even though he has yet to be tagged as “persona non grata” and therefore unwelcome in the country where he is accredited. The foreign ministry knocked Pauls’ speech as “inaccurate, misinformed and inappropriate”.

It was another foreigner, English-born journalist Kevin Myers, who offered a sarcastic but incisive perspective on the issues raised by Ambassador Pauls. In an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Myers noted that when the ambassador had departed from the usual bromides peddled by diplomats in host countries, Pauls had actually been frank. Pauls apparently told his listeners that Ireland’s history is sadder than Poland’s and that Ireland has not learned from Germany’s experience with accepting immigrants. Writing an opinion piece in the Irish Times, Myers said of Pauls, “He merely told the truth. For this is a conceited, ill-run country, with a bloated civil service and a health-care service that makes Zanzibar's look like Zurich's. Moreover, as your man pointed out, we have studiously ignored the consequences of immigration right across Europe: instead we witlessly bleat about ‘the new Irish’, as if calling people what they are not will spare us the problems you know all too well about”. Myers, who in the United States would be considered a libertarian, has been denounced in the past for referring to illegitimate children as “bastards” in print. Some wags in Ireland, with Gaelic wit reminiscent of Swift and Wilde, refer to Myers as “My-arse”.

The Republic of Ireland has been the recipient of growing numbers of immigrants, especially from Eastern Europe but also Africa. However, the single largest group of immigrants comes from the United Kingdom, followed by Poland, Lithuania, Nigeria, Latvia, and the United States. Approximately 10 percent of Ireland’s population is foreign-born. Immigrants to Ireland, much like arrivals in the US or elsewhere in Europe, place demands on institutions such as schools. The birthrate in Ireland appears to be growing, too, perhaps because of the arrival of many foreigners unaccustomed to contraception and the culture of death.

The Irish state is coping with the inroads on its immigrants and babies make on its services, but appears to whine and then blame the Catholic Church for an inability to incorporate many non-Christian or non-Catholics in Catholic schools. The Catholic bishops, for example, had to publicly deny recently that their policy to favor Catholic students applying for admission to Catholic schools is not actually racist. This came after the Equality Authority (how perfectly Orwellian!) of the Irish state claimed that the bishops’ policy may actually break both Irish law and European anti-discrimination law in supposedly denying admission to non-Catholic students. Citing the Equal Status Act, Monsignor Daniel O’Connor of the Catholic Primary Schools Association said that the Act makes specific provisions to allow denominational schools in Ireland to give preference to students on the basis of religion. Therefore, Catholic schools in Ireland operate within the law.

Commentators like Myers are less than frank when it comes to the process of “secularization” going on in Europe. Ireland is now down to two Catholic seminaries, divorce is legal, attendance at Mass is declining, the numbers of Anglicans declines, while 45,000 Irish women have traveled to Great Britain since 1967 to obtain abortions, according to official figures. These are features of Irish society that are reflected in formerly Catholic countries such as Italy and Spain that are now increasingly secularized. Ireland now appears to be only beginning to emulate the Continent in opposing the Catholic Church as has, for example, the Socialist government of Spain as it seeks to dictate the teaching of deviant sexual practices in schools operated by the Church there.

With the concern and frankness of a father, Pope Benedict XVI received the new ambassador of the Irish Republic to the Holy See on September 17. The pope told Ambassador Noel Fahey that "for over 1600 years, Christianity has shaped the cultural, moral and spiritual identity of the Irish people." Remarking that the economic boom that has earned Ireland the sobriquet of “Celtic Tiger” may have been a blessing but "prosperity has undoubtedly brought material comfort to many, but in its wake secularism has also begun to encroach and leave its mark."

Speaking again very pointedly, the pontiff said about relations between the Church and the state that the church "serves all of society by shedding light on the foundation of morality and ethics, and by purifying reason, ensuring that it remains open to the consideration of ultimate truths and draws upon wisdom." The church, said Benedict, does not necessarily threaten the state, but "keeps public debate rational, honest and accountable." Also, while applauding concern for the environment, the pope deplored what he termed “scant attention to the marvel of life in the womb”, an obvious reference to the growing phenomenon of abortion among women from the Emerald Isle even while it remains ostensibly illegal there. Benedict made what seems to be a prognostication for Europe as a whole by saying that if the Church is barred from proclaiming truth in the public square that, "relativism takes its place: instead of being governed by principles, political choices are determined more and more by public opinion, values are overshadowed by procedures and targets, and indeed the very categories of good and evil, and right and wrong, give way to the pragmatic calculation of advantage and disadvantage."

One wonders if observers in Ireland would admit as much frankness from Catholic prelates and other Christian pastors that Kevin Myers welcomes from the bumbling German ambassador. As the so-called “secularization” of Ireland, and Europe, continues so too will the friction between Church and state. Let us hope that the friction produces more light rather than heated exchanges.



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