13th March 2015
With some surprise, I have just woken up to the fact that we are celebrating two years since the election of Pope Francis, the first Pope from the New World. It is a cliché, but it really does seem just the other day that I – along with everyone else – was waiting for the […]
17th March 2014
When Pope Francis spoke about Ukraine at the Sunday Angelus on 2 March, he called for all Ukrainians to overcome misunderstandings and to build the future of the nation together and made “a heartfelt appeal to the international community to support every initiative on behalf of dialogue and concord”. Regrettably, there is one country in […]
Read more on Russia defies the Pope, and the world, on Ukraine | Reply
5th February 2014
It is great news that The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will meet Pope Francis at the Vatican in April this year. It will be Her Majesty’s fifth visit to the Vatican, and the seventh occasion on which The Queen has met a reigning Pope. Her Majesty of course met Popes John Paul II […]
Read more on Britain and the Holy See: The Royal Connection | Reply
30th January 2014
The UK is one of 31 members of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), an intergovernmental body born in 1998 to expand Holocaust education worldwide, and to secure political and social leaders’ support behind the need for Holocaust education, remembrance and research both nationally and internationally. In February this year we will take over the rotating […]
Read more on The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance at the Vatican | Reply
24th January 2013
Earlier this week, I was in London to attend and address the first ever course run by the Foreign Office on religion and foreign policy. The particular focus was on the issue of freedom of religion or belief, but the wider goal of the course is to help British diplomats understand better the importance of […]
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30th May 2012
Seven members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Holy See have just visited the Vatican. In a whistle-stop tour, they were able to meet a range of important Holy See officials, including calls at the Secretariat of State and, separately, at Caritas Internationalis. They were also presented to Pope Benedict at the General […]
16th February 2012
A very intensive 24 hours this week saw the strongest ever delegation of ministers from the United Kingdom – 7 in total, including 4 Cabinet Ministers – paying an official visit to the Holy See. As Baroness Warsi, the leader of the delegation, noted in her speech at the official dinner hosted by Secretary of […]