9th December 2020
Holy See
As British Ambassador to the Holy See I have been privileged to work with some of the 650,000 Catholic women religious who are combating the global issues affecting the world today: from the response to the Covid-19 pandemic to modern slavery, from helping victims of sexual violence in conflict to protecting the planet, women religious […]
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26th May 2017
Holy See
We were privileged, on 18 May 2017, to attend a Papal Audience at which Pope Francis gave his love and support for patients and families with Huntington’s disease (HD). Also present were their carers and advocates as well as researchers striving to find treatments and cures for this devastating disease. HD is a genetic disorder […]
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13th March 2017
Holy See
The Commonwealth and the Holy See represent the two largest soft power networks in the world. The Holy See has over 1.2 billion faithful globally, and a network of Bishops, NGOs and religious congregations which reach deep into the societies of the countries where they live. The Commonwealth is made up of 52 countries with […]
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25th January 2017
Holy See
January is traditionally a time for New Year’s resolutions and for planning ahead, so it seems a good moment to look at what the year may have in store for the UK and the Holy See. My starting point is Pope Francis’s address to the diplomatic corps, in which he set out how he sees […]
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22nd December 2016
Holy See
Pope Francis turned 80 on 17 December. Messages poured in from around the world (70,000 emails) and the Pope celebrated with 8 homeless people. Much has been written about the Pope’s achievements. He is on a mission to change the Church, making it more global, ecumenical, open to dialogue with other faiths, focussed on the […]
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29th November 2016
Holy See
One of the things that I have been struck by since starting in Rome in August is the difference in how the Vatican does foreign policy compared to the UK (or indeed most countries). In some ways our foreign policy structures are similar. In the Vatican the Pope decides the policy line; in London, ministers […]
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19th September 2016
Holy See
May I introduce myself? I am Sally Axworthy, the new British Ambassador to the Holy See. I presented my credentials to Pope Francis on 19 September. Over the coming four years, I hope to blog regularly to give an insight into the work of this Embassy I come to Rome having just spent six months learning […]
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1st August 2016
Holy See
“There can be only one” – not only the tag-line from the “Highlander” movies, but also the rules about Ambassadors accredited to each State. There can only be one official Ambassador in a country at a time. So there is always a gap between one leaving and the next arriving – which is another opportunity […]
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14th April 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
How could the British embassy to the Holy See contribute to the Shakespeare 400th anniversary this year? There is an extraordinary programme of official events organised under the Shakespeare Lives banner, but the Vatican was not an obvious element. And although the Royal Shakespeare Company had performed Shakespearean excerpts before Pope Paul VI in 1964, the […]
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10th March 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Last week I accompanied the Holy See Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, on a visit to the United Kingdom. He came at the invitation of the British government, so inevitably much of his time was taken up in official meetings with a wide range of government ministers. He visited five different Departments […]
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