MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands added to Argentina stand off with Vatican

Archbishop Mamberti, Vatican diplomacy at its best

The coming visit this week to Argentina of a top official from the Holy See has triggered speculation in the Buenos Aires press that a Vatican request for the creation of a new diocese in Tierra del Fuego “could include the Falkland Islands”.

Relations between Argentina and the Vatican, according to the media, have been strained or stagnant on three issues, a new Chaplain for the Armed Forces, the acceptance of the proposed name for new representative before the Vatican and the Catholic Church request to redraft ecclesiastic geography. Archbishop Dominique Mamberti is expected in Buenos Aires for the episcopal consecration of Monsignor Mariano Montemayor which is scheduled to take place next Wednesday in Buenos Aires Metropolitan cathedral with Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio leading the ceremony. Argentine born Monsignor Montemayor has been named as Vatican representative in several African countries. However the media, quoting Argentine Foreign Affairs ministry sources, indicates that since Archbishop Mamberti is considered an "experienced" diplomat and close aide of current Pope Benedict XVI he could hold unofficial talks over the three issues. The first refers to the naming of a successor to Bishop Antonio Baseotto as Argentine Armed Forces chaplain and for which the consent of the Argentine government is needed. Given the Argentine Catholic Church dual role under military rule, the Kirchner administrations are very sensitive to human rights groups lobbying. The second refers to a former Justice Minister, Alberto Iribarne, a divorcee and now living unmarried, who was proposed as ambassador. Apparently there was no previous informal sounding of his name and the Vatican has frozen his diplomatic placet. Finally the redrafting o a new diocese in the extreme south Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, which according to the 1994 Argentine constitution includes the Malvinas islands and other South Atlantic insular territories. The Falklands given the small population and remote condition depend directly from a Vatican special missions' office. Argentina obviously would like the Vatican to recognize Argentine sovereignty over the Falklands/Malvinas by including the islands in the Tierra del Fuego dioceses and "Foreign Affairs ministry sources are optimistic about the talks". Archbishop Mamberti has a meeting scheduled with top officials at the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs "probably with Minister Jorge Taiana" but in the sage ways of the Catholic Church he is the advance party of an official high level visit from Cardinal Tarciso Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State, some time in the coming weeks. Cardinal Bertone is expected to coordinate with Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (and Chile) the 30th anniversary of Pope John Paul's successful intervention in late 1978, preventing a war between neighboring Argentina and Chile over disputed islands in the Beagle Channel. Argentina tanks had begun rolling in the south when John Paul II pleaded directly to military dictators Jorge Rafael Videla and Augusto Pinochet. In January 1979 a peace agreement was signed in Montevideo, Uruguay with the Vatican mediation. However this did not prevent Argentina a few years later from invading the Falkland Islands.