6th April 2016
The Pope’s announcement at St Peter’s on 3 April that he is calling for a collection on behalf of the long suffering land and people of Ukraine was a significant gesture. On 24 April, all Catholic parishes in Europe will raise money for a country that since the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014 […]
26th February 2016
In May this year, the first World Humanitarian Summit will be held in Istanbul. The United Kingdom sees this as a real opportunity to take stock of how humanitarian aid around the world is distributed, and to improve the effectiveness of delivery to ensure that aid reaches those most in need. Humanitarian aid needs to […]
10th February 2016
Pope Francis is on record as calling modern slavery “a crime against humanity”. Over 200 years since the British Parliament abolished the transatlantic slave trade and began an international campaign, led by the Royal Navy, to eradicate it, the Home Office estimates that there are around 13,000 potential victims of modern slavery in the UK […]
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19th January 2016
Pope Francis’s encyclical letter Laudato Si’ – On Care for our Common Home was released to the public seven months ago. A lot has happened in the interim. Most important was an ambitious new global climate agreement secured in Paris in December, welcomed and pushed for by the British government, at which 180 countries representing […]
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30th December 2015
Pope Francis has spoken frequently of his belief that the current state of instability in the world, overlain by the global threat of terrorism, is something akin to a “third world war fought piecemeal”. In his message for the World Day of Peace, he noted that, “sadly, war and terrorism, accompanied by kidnapping, ethnic or […]
10th December 2015
Pope Francis formally inaugurated the Holy Year of Mercy in Rome when he opened the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica on 8 December. He was the first through the Door, followed by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and the assembled throngs of cardinals, bishops and clergy. We diplomats were also fortunate enough to be allowed […]
10th November 2015
One important element in the bilateral relationship between Britain and the Holy See is Parliament. Since 2004, an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Holy See has existed, in its words, “to monitor the relationship between the UK and the Holy See and call representatives of faith communities and the foreign/diplomatic service to brief […]
2nd November 2015
Nostra aetate (trans. “In our Time”) was the shortest of the many official documents that emerged from the Second Vatican Council. It was sub-titled “Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions”. Passed by an overwhelming majority of the bishops present, and promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 28 October 1965, the Holy […]
25th August 2015
On 25 August 1609, Galileo Galilei demonstrated his first telescope to the Venetian authorities. This invention opened up the skies, and piqued men’s interest in the planets and stars around us and beyond, which in turn has led to modern wonders such as men on the moon, the Hubble space telescope, the Rosetta mission to […]
17th August 2015
One of the quirks of being posted to the Holy See is that it is one of the few in the world where Ambassador and Deputy Head of Mission regularly have to wear diplomatic uniforms. It comes as a surprise to many that the Foreign Office has a uniform at all – unless they had […]