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Volume 9 1948~1951

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No. 352 NAI TSCH/2/2/11

Extract from the minutes of a meeting of the Cabinet
'Note Verbal: Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland: Proposed appointment of the most Reverend Monsignor Ettore Felici'
(GC 5/114) (Item 4) (S5954/A)1

Dublin, 4 August 1949

  1. The Minister for External Affairs had the honour to receive from the Holy See, through the Right Reverend Monsignor Paro, a request for the agrément of the Irish Government to the appointment as Nuncio Apostolic in Ireland of his Excellency the Most Reverend Monsignor Ettore Felici.
  2. The Minister wishes to express his profound regret for the long delay in replying formally to this request. He believes that the Holy See, considering the very special circumstances of the intervening months, will fully understand the inevitability of the delay. After most careful consideration the Minister had come to the conclusion that consideration of the matter should be postponed until the Republic of Ireland Act had entered into operation and the new diplomatic and other procedures resulting from this important constitutional change had been effectively established.
  3. It is not, indeed, necessary to assure the Holy See that the filling of the post of Apostolic Nuncio in Dublin is of transcendent importance to the people of Ireland, as well as to the Irish race throughout the world. The Minister for External Affairs naturally wished to secure that so grave a matter should receive from the Irish Government the most careful and mature consideration. The relations between Ireland and the Holy See being of the closest and happiest character, the Minister felt confident that there could be no possibility of misunderstanding the reasons for this course. This conclusion was strengthened by the Minister's conviction that the Holy Father was fully cognisant of the flourishing condition of the Faith in Ireland and of the contribution made by the Irish people to the fervent practice of the Catholic religion and to the glory of the Universal Church in every part of the world, especially in those English-speaking countries where our people have settled in such large numbers and where Irish priests and sisters have laboured with a zeal and success unsurpassed by those of any other race.
  4. To measure the contribution of the Irish race to the spread of the Faith in the English-speaking countries, it is sufficient to visualise what the state of the Catholic religion would be in Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and, above all, in the United States of America, if these lands had not been enriched by a steady outpouring of priests and religious from Ireland and of a multitude of Irish emigrants who, in their turn, gave priests and nuns to God from amongst their numerous children. In other regions also, flourishing Catholic communities bear witness to the burning missionary zeal of the Irish race. It is an undeniable fact that today, as in the long centuries since Saint Patrick brought the Faith from Rome to Ireland, the Irish are amongst the most devoted and zealous children of the Church.
  5. All these circumstances, taken in the background of the deep filial loyalty of the members of the Irish Government in regard to the Holy Father, give to the Minister for External Affairs the most complete confidence that he can address the Holy See in a very frank manner and can suggest that, in the selection of a prelate for the Dublin post, the choice, in his humble submission, would most happily fall on someone specially familiar with the history, tradition and outlook of the Irish people. Such a prelate, being already sensitive to all the implications inherent in our history, would, we believe, be peculiarly qualified to play a positive role in strengthening the close relations which have always existed between Ireland and the Holy See and in strengthening the Faith which has brought our people through so many centuries of religious persecution. Such, in fact, was the role so well fulfilled by the late Apostolic Nuncio, who will always be remembered with gratitude and affection in Ireland for the contribution which he made towards the attainment of these aims by his personal sanctity and humility, as well as by the prudent exercise of his high function to the glory of the Church and the welfare of the Irish people. Ireland was indeed blessed in having, during a critical period of her political development, a Nuncio endowed with so profound and intimate a knowledge of her social and political structure, as well as of her relations with the United States and Great Britain.
  6. One final and vital stage of Ireland's political development remains to be accomplished, however, namely, the reunification of the country. For over a quarter of a century six Irish Counties have been separated from the rest of the country, from which they are divided by an artificial and unnatural boundary. The population of this 'Irlanda Irredenta' contains a majority of Protestants, most of whom have been reared in ignorance of the teachings of the Catholic Church and are inculcated with prejudice, amounting frequently to fanaticism, against the Church and her institutions. This unfortunate prejudice, which imposes many unjust disabilities on the Catholics living in the area, is deeply rooted and stands as a barrier, not only between the Protestant population concerned and the Church, but between them and their fellow-Irishmen. The Catholics living in this area, forming somewhat less than half the population of the six counties, suffer from many disabilities. To remove this barrier and restore the unity of the country is the dearest hope of the Irish Government and of the overwhelming majority of the Irish people.
  7. One of the principal slogans used by those who sponsor Britain's territorial claims in the north-eastern corner of our nation is, and has always been, that 'Home Rule means Rome Rule'. Appeals to blind and ignorant bigotry seek to suggest that our temporal affairs are subjected to interference by the Holy See. In other words, an integral element of the campaign against the reunification of Ireland is an attempt to create and maintain the belief in parts of the six north-eastern counties, that if Ireland were reunited, the Protestant population in the north-east would find themselves dominated by Rome. The fact that this belief is entirely unfounded, and that the effort to foster it merely forms part of the propaganda used to maintain the Partition of Ireland, is immaterial. The facts are that the belief still exists, that vigorous efforts continue to be made to exploit it for political purposes, and that, for many years, the utmost endeavours of the Irish Government have been bent on proving its falsity.
  8. The Irish Government feel that both their national duty and their filial loyalty to the Holy See place on them the onus of seeking to avert any step which, however remotely, might aid those who fan the flames of religious bigotry in the North-eastern corner of Ireland as a means of perpetuating the Partition of the country. This is all the more so because the campaign of religious intolerance in that part of Ireland is directed principally against the person of the Holy Father Himself. In 1553, an English Queen (Queen Mary) wrote of the position in that country:-

    'as the discussions in Parliament proceed, we are becoming well aware that the recognition of the Holy See has to face infinitely greater difficulties than the establishment of the Catholic worship, so great has been the success in planting false ideas about the Pope.'

    At this distance of time and space, it is difficult to imagine how such an attitude of mind could have survived; but the reality unfortunately is that it has survived in the North-eastern corner of Ireland, and that the bigotry and fanaticism which characterise it is in a large part maintained by attacks on the Holy Father Himself.

  9. The relevance of this situation to the choice of the representative of the Holy See in Ireland will be immediately apparent. It was, indeed, one of the considerations which made the Holy Father's choice in selecting as his first Nuncio to Ireland the late Most Reverend Doctor Paschal Robinson so eminently suitable. This most felicitous appointment, symbolising at once the universality of the Church and the Holy Father's habitual solicitude for the problems which face his children, obviated the danger, otherwise so real and tangible, that the presence of a personal representative of the Holy Father in Dublin would be used to fan the flames of sectarian prejudice and that the person of the Papal Envoy would thereby become the object of sectarian political attacks. That the late Nuncio Apostolic so successfully avoided the pitfalls which beset his office was largely due to the deep awareness of their nature which he derived from his profound knowledge of Irish ecclesiastical history and the social and political structure of our country.
  10. In view of the political difficulties which still confront the Irish nation, the members of the Irish Government, as active and convinced Catholics, felt that they had a special duty to make known to the Holy Father their anxieties and the elements of the situation which, in their humble view, are relevant. This they now do with great humility, so the Holy Father may be fully informed of these considerations. If the Holy Father, having examined the situation, decides to appoint his Excellency Most Reverend Ettore Felici to be Nuncio in Ireland, the Irish Government accept that decision unequivocally and with filial piety, and they ask the Holy Father to regard the agrément as already granted.
  11. In conclusion, the Minister for External Affairs desires to confirm again the filial and affectionate readiness of the Irish Government to submit to the ultimate decision of the Holy Father. In setting out in this Memorandum, for the information of the Holy Father, the grave anxieties and preoccupations which the question of the choice of a new Nuncio in Ireland occasions to the Irish Government, the Minister for External Affairs has acted after the most prolonged and painstaking consideration with the single-minded and ardent desire to see the union between the See of Peter and the Irish people still further strengthened for the Glory of Christ and of his Church.

1 Handed to Monsignor Paro on 6 August 1949 (See copy of document on NAI DFA/10/P126/1). External Affairs telegram to Embassy, Holy See of 4 August 1949 says that the Note Verbal 'has [the] entire approval of [the] Archbishop of Dublin' (NAI DFA/10/P126/1).

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