34 Friday May 27 2022 | the times
Wo r l d
The Pope has come under fire for
claiming that Irish and Italian
migrants were responsible for bring-
ing whiskey and the mob to America.
Francis gave his view on US history
in a speech at the Vatican in which he
ostensibly set out to defend the role of
migrants in America.
He recalled a conversation with an
American who told him Americans
are not migrants because “we have
rooted here”. Francis said he replied:Pope takes aim at Irish with whiskey jibe
“Don’t lose your memory: You are a
people of migrants, of Irish migrants
and Italian migrants. The Irish
brought whiskey and the Italians the
mafia. Always look at the roots.”
Rather than a defence of migrants,
as Francis may have intended, the
comments were “an ethnic slur”, said
Robert Mickens, editor of La Croix
International, a Catholic publication.
“Francis is sensitive on other ques-
tions, but with comments like this
you open a door and the risk is other
people take it further,” he said.
Francis has made the defence ofmigrants a central pillar of his papacy
and spoken of how his father left Italy
for Argentina in the 1920s.
But Mickens argued that he was
not helping to improve the image of
migrants with his latest remarks. “He
feels he can say these things because
his family migrated,” he said.
The pope has raised eyebrows in
the past with jokes seen as reinforcing
stereotypes, starting with his habit of
making gags about mother-in-laws.
In 2015 he said: “Families fight. And
sometimes plates fly, and sometimes
kids get knocked on the head.”Vatican
Tom Kington RomeFrench diplomats are going on strike
next week in protest against a reform
by President Macron that they say
will kill off the country’s illustrious
foreign service.
The one-day worldwide stoppage
in embassies, consulates and in the
Paris headquarters on Thursday re-
flects anger at all levels of the Quai
d’Orsay, as the foreign ministry is
known, over a move next year that
will abolish diplomats’ traditional
status as being distinct from the rest
of the civil service.
At present the world’s third biggest
diplomatic service, after those of the
United States and China, recruits and
trains its own staff to become envoys
and ambassadors for France.
But to promote mobility across the
state sector and open the way to out-
side recruitment, senior diplomatic
staff will be drawn from a new pool of
“interministerial civil servants”.
Macron’s reform has triggered a
rare revolt in the normally discreet
service, which has just come under
the command of a new minister,
Catherine Colonna, a career diplo-Diplomats to strike over ‘end
of the French foreign service’
mat who until last week was serving
as ambassador to London.
“We are very concerned,” one am-
bassador said. “We are not inter-
changeable! I respect my colleagues
from other administrations, but I
don’t know how to do their job and
they don’t know how to do mine.”
The French foreign service has
staged a strike only once before: in
2003 there was a one-day stoppage to
demand higher pay for foreign
assignments.
But this week a “collective” of 500
mainly young diplomats signed a
protest column in Le Monde news-
paper, claiming: “We are faced with
the threat of the disappearance of our
professional diplomacy.” They
added: “The professions of the
Quai d’Orsay take a long time to
learn... notably abroad and in
difficult missions.”
Nathalie Loiseau, Macron’s first
Europe minister and a career
diplomat, said she backed
the revolt and argued that
the skills required foreffective diplomacy were not inter-
changeable with other branches of
the civil service. “A diplomat won’t
make a good under-director in the
farm ministry. Not just anyone can be
the consul in Kurdistan,” she said.
Macron and his team defend the
reform as overdue modernisation
and depict the criticism as the griping
of a privileged clan.
Many in the foreign service believe
Macron is out to punish them as part
of a feud he has waged with the Quai
d’Orsay over its resistance to changes
he has made in foreign policy, espe-
cially towards Russia. In 2019 he
rebuked ambassadors in public for
resisting his moves to forge closer ties
with Moscow.
The appointment of Colonna,
who replaced Jean-Yves Le Dri-
an, a career politician, was seen
as an attempt to placate the ser-
vice. As she took office she told
staff she had complete
faith in them: “We
need every one of
you. You can count
on me never to
forget who I am or
where I came
from.”France
Charles Bremner ParisIn 2019 Macron railed
at envoys’ resistance
to his policy on RussiaI
n Mas-d’Agenais,
southwest France,
villagers have been
talking about
“Christ’s return”
(Adam Sage writes).
Their excitement has
been spurred not by the
Second Coming, but the
reappearance of a
Rembrandt painting six
years after it was
removed from the local
church amid fears for its
security.
Christ on the Cross,
painted in 1631 and
estimated to be worth
€90 million, was
welcomed back to Le
Mas-d’Agenais after the
village council agreed to
install security cameras,
a bulletproof glass case
and sensors in the
12th-century church as
part of a €1.7 million
renovation.
The painting had beentaken to Bordeaux
Cathedral, where
security was tighter, on
the orders of the culture
ministry. It made the
90-minute return trip on
Tuesday in an unmarked
SUV police car, with the
operation kept secret
until it was safely behind
the bulletproof glass.
Word had already got
out, however. The talk in
the village hairdressers
was all of “Christ’s
return”. Béatrice
Touton, a café owner,
said that as soon as she
saw the police SUV drive
up, “I thought to myself,
‘He’s back.’ ”
The work was given to
the parish in 1804 by
Xavier Duffour, a local
man who became a
captain in Napoleon
Bonaparte’s army, and
who appears to have had
no idea of its worth. Acentury later, when
church property was
placed in the public
sector under a law that
made France a secular
state, Christ on the Cross
was given to the council,
although still no one
realised it was a
Rembrandt. It was only
in 1959 when it was sent
to the Louvre in Paris
for restoration that the
signature “RHL 1631”
was uncovered.
Claude Lagarde, the
mayor, said villagers had
talked of selling it,
usually after a few beers,
to raise funds to
renovate the rugby
stadium but the idea was
abandoned when
everyone sobered up.
In fact the painting
cannot leave France or
enter a private
collection: it is classified
as a national monument.The resurrection of the
Rembrandt gives village
a security headache
Christ on the Cross,
painted by Rembrandt in
1631, is hanging again in
the 12th-century church,
but protected now by
bulletproof glassPHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES