Falklands : Tierra del Fuego - Falklands Diocese Out of the Question Says Monsignor McPartland
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 01.07.2008 (Article Archived on 15.07.2008)
An article on the Catholic World News website caught the eye of many in the Falklands when it published an article dealing with splitting a Diocese in Patagonia and making a new Diocese of Tierra Del Fuego that included the Falkland Islands.
TIERRA DEL FUEGO-FALKLANDS DIOCESE OUT OF THE QUESTION SAYS MONSIGNOR McPARTLAND
By J. Brock (FINN)
An article on the Catholic World News website caught the eye of many in the Falklands when it published an article dealing with splitting a Diocese in Patagonia and making a new Diocese of Tierra Del Fuego that included the Falkland Islands. The article went on to say that the Vatican had not accepted the proposal by the Roman Catholic Church in Argentina and had put off making any decision on the matter.
In Buenos Aires the media had a field day with this and touted the Argentine Government’s irritation with the Vatican on the Falklands issue as well as that on abortion, which the current Argentine Government sanctions.
In all of this, only one, as yet unnamed journalist called last Sunday the Prefect Apostolic in the Falklands, Monsignor Michael B McPartland, to ask what was going on and to ask a few basic questions about the Apostolic Prefecture of the Falkland Islands. Monsignor had told the journalist that this was the first he had heard of the proposal and he corrected him on some misinformation given to him from uninformed sources.
Evidently the Journalist believed that the Apostolic Prefecture of the Falkland Islands was set up since 1982 but Monsignor soon put him right by saying that the Papal Bull creating the Apostolic Prefecture in the Falkland Islands was issued in 1952. FINN has looked at the Papal Bull and can confirm this is true.
The story, which broke on Monday, focused on the Argentine Government’s frustration and irritation at the Vatican’s decision to ignore the proposal to include the ‘Falkland/Malvinas’ in any new diocese in Tierra del Fuego. To set the record straight, FINN went to visit Monsignor McPartland to ask if he had a statement about this most recent attempt to have Vatican approval for the Argentine claim of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
“I am intrigued by the news of the prospect of a new diocese being erected in Tierra Del Fuego. However, as far as I am concerned, any notion of the Apostolic Prefecture of the Falkland Islands being part of it is totally out of the question.”
Since 1982 the Apostolic Prefecture of the Falkland Islands has changed, in that in 1986 the Independent Mission of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha were attached to the Apostolic Prefecture of the Falkland Islands and according to Monsignor McPartland this attachment is also well documented.
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