24th December 2013
Pope Francis places great emphasis in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Guadium on communication. In large part, he declares, communicating the Gospel is the Church’s principal mission statement. This is not, of course, a new message, although the emphasis may be. But it was perhaps no coincidence that the Holy See recently announced that the means of communication […]
18th December 2013
The Religious Freedom Project of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University organised an important conference in Rome last week on the theme of ‘Christianity and Freedom’. A number of distinguished British academics took part. One of the questions asked was what more are governments doing to stop religious persecution […]
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10th December 2013
It is right to call corruption a cancer. When it grows in the body politic, sometimes imperceptibly, it has the ability rapidly and insidiously to infiltrate and destroy the organs of the state. Once embedded, it is very difficult to cut out. Metastasis across society is common. It prevents countries from developing and reaching their […]
4th December 2013
We all know the phrase about lies, damned lies and statistics. I often think this is particularly applicable when trying to identify and quantify people’s religious identity. How do we count the number of Anglicans, Catholics or Muslims? For Christians, is it based on baptism, whether they go to church every week, or what they […]
27th November 2013
From time to time, I continue to receive queries from well-meaning people asking why we have an embassy to the Holy See. It’s not a nation state, they suggest. So what can our interests be? I would hope that regular readers of this blog or our twitter feed have a pretty good idea by now […]
18th November 2013
England and Wales celebrate Inter-Faith week this week (Scotland celebrates a week later to coincide with St Andrew’s Day). When it comes to the relations between the world’s great religions, we tend to hear more about the bad news than the good. This breeds mistrust and reinforces prejudice and ignorance. So a few reminders of […]
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31st July 2013
The following is a guest blog by Steve Townsend, Deputy Head of Mission. It is difficult to think that I have already finished the first six months of my four-year posting to the Holy See. The time seems to flown past. Why did I apply for the job? I am interested in “soft power” – […]
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26th June 2013
The European Union – as an institution, and as individual member states – is often criticised for not doing enough to protect and promote freedom of religion and belief around the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is very clear on the issue, we are often reminded. And yet, the critics say, amongst the […]
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9th May 2013
Prime Minister David Cameron and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia co-hosted an important conference on Somalia in London on 7 May. As I told Vatican Radio, the conference was held under very different circumstances from the February 2012 London Somalia conference. Shortly before then, Benedict XVI had called on the world to act in […]
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4th April 2013
2013 sees the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s great encyclical Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), addressed “to all people of good will”. In the encyclical, Pope John called on states to reduce arms stockpiles – nuclear and conventional – and for “a general agreement … about progressive disarmament and an effective method of […]
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