17th July 2014
The following is a guest blog by Steve Townsend, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy to the Holy See In July in Rome, thoughts start to turn to holidays, and escaping the humidity of the Eternal City for the beach or the mountains. Most people think that they have deserved their break, and […]
11th July 2014
Pope Francis rightly calls on the rich to do more to ensure equity for the poor. We must listen to the counsel of those on the periphery, he tells us. And we should be generous in our solidarity – a word, he told his audience on a recent trip to the Italian region of Molise, […]
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3rd July 2014
The recent visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury – Justin Welby’s second since he and Pope Francis began their respective missions in the same week in March 2013 – placed in the spotlight the relationship between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church across the world. One of the key instruments of that relationship […]
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27th June 2014
Earlier this week I was in London to address an in-house training programme of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on religion and foreign policy. The course is aimed at British diplomats, but also public servants from other government ministries; there were a number of participants this week from the Ministry of Defence, and on […]
19th June 2014
I have commented in recent weeks on the 10-13 June London Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. This week, I give the floor to Pádraic MacOireachtaigh, Jesuit Refugee Service Regional Advocacy and Communications Officer in the Great Lakes based in Burundi, who participated in the Summit, and who contributes his own supportive but critical […]
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11th June 2014
As the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict unfolds, I am delighted to give voice in my blog to a story from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Last week at Vatican Radio, a panel discussion showed that religious networks have a huge role to play to end the use of rape as a […]
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4th June 2014
I often have to remind people that I am accredited not to the Vatican City State, but to the Holy See, the governance of the global Catholic Church. As such, this embassy has reach into an extraordinary worldwide network of civil society organisations, religious congregations, diplomats, universities and other components that make up the Catholic […]
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28th May 2014
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and our global diplomatic network lead the way in the development of digital diplomacy (or “Twiplomacy” as it is sometimes called: Twitter + Diplomacy). Some people, retired diplomats amongst them, have been critical of “tweeting ambassadors”. Yet our experience has been a positive one. Whether we like it or not, we […]
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22nd May 2014
One of the most extraordinary aspects of Pope Francis’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land on 24-26 May is how it has started to bear fruit even before it has begun. Sadly, the lands that he will be visiting – the crucible for some of the most intractable conflicts in human history – are not known […]
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15th May 2014
The following is a guest blog by Steve Townsend, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy to the Holy See. A high-level group of scientists and social scientists gathered together in early May in the Vatican, to discuss “Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature: Our Responsibility”. The aim of the conference was to bring both disciplines […]