This diplomatic news today is big:

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.

The Irish government says it’s a cost-cutting move, and it’s certainly the case that Dublin needs to save funds. But come on, this is not really about money, but about disgust over the Church’s abuse of power (and children) in the Irish Republic. The collapse of the Catholic faith in Ireland is one of the more stunning events in the religious history of our time. And, to my mind, one of the most tragic, for a host of reasons.

From an extraordinary address Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin gave earlier this year:

I remember, on that occasion, that Pope John Paul II asked me “how is it that secularisation came to Ireland so quickly?”  My answer to that question was quite simple: “Your Holiness is wrong”, though my Vatican training did not allow me to express myself quite in those exact words.   The Pope was wrong.  Secularisation, whatever that means exactly, had been on the Irish radar screen for many years.  It was not all negative but it was not an overnight wonder.   It was there, but not recognised.  It was there but the answer of the Irish Church was for far too long to keep the same show on the road, not noticing that there were problems with the show and that the road was changing.

More:

Not only was the Church culture of the time inadequate to face the challenge of change, but that  culture was in itself something that made real and realistic change more difficult.

That the conformist Ireland of the Archbishop McQuaid era changed so rapidly and with few tears was read as an indication of a desire for change, but perhaps it was also an indication that the conformism was covering an emptiness and a faith built on a faulty structure to which people no longer really ascribed.   The good-old-days of traditional mid-twentieth century Irish Catholicism may in reality not have so good and healthy after all.

And:

A few weeks ago a very angry survivor of sexual abuse by a Dublin priest came to me to express his disgust and horror at what the Church had done to him.  He wanted nothing more to do with a corrupt Church or any of its agents and listening to his story one could well understand his anger.  Leaving me he thanked me and added: “I believe that you will be confirming my little lad later this month”.  For many the sacraments are the social events of a civil religion rather than celebrations of the Church.

Young Irish people are among the most catechised in Europe but apparently among the least evangelized.  Our schools are great schools; our young people are idealistic and generous, but the bond between young people and Church life ends up being very weak.