The Vatican's Declining Relevance

Last year, veteran Italian journalist Massimo Franco published a book about what he sees as the Vatican’s declining international relevance. Its opening chapter was titled “The Last Ambassador,” and featured a diplomat from a major Western nation who compared his situation, representing his government to the Vatican today, to that of the final ambassadors to the soon-to-disappear Republic of Venice in 1797.

Franco quoted another diplomat at a Vatican reception looking around at his colleagues and openly wondering, “How many of us will still be here in 10 years?”