28th March 2022
Belgrade, Serbia
People around the world have watched in horror and disbelief as Russian military hardware wreaks death and destruction across Ukraine. Moscow’s decision to launch a brutal and bloody war is illegal and unjustified. It is unsurprising that the world has moved quickly to condemn the invasion, and actions such as targeting of maternity hospitals and […]
Read more on The myth of russophobia | Reply
26th April 2016
Beirut, Lebanon
Yesterday I participated in an ANZAC ceremony for the first time: a moving dawn service led by Australian Ambassador Glenn Miles to commemorate the fallen of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) in the battle of Gallipoli, 1915. This tragic battle helped forge the modern countries of Australia and New Zealand. There was […]
Read more on War and Reconciliation | Reply (1)
16th March 2016
Beirut, Lebanon
It has been five years since the Syria conflict began. Five years of barrel bombs, mass executions and disappearances. Five years of people being forced from their homes because they fear for their lives. And for many of those who fled to Lebanon, what they expected to be a temporary move has become a painful […]
Read more on Five years of War in Syria: how international support for Lebanon is changing | Reply
12th March 2015
Beirut, Lebanon
On the first anniversary of the Syria conflict, I wrote about the staggering impact it had already had – those numbers seem small now. On the second anniversary, I wrote about the generosity of Syria’s neighbours and parts of the international community, the frustrations of diplomacy, and the need to maintain a sense of rage. […]
Read more on Tolerating the Intolerable: Syria, Four Years On | Reply (2)
17th November 2014
Ottawa, Canada
In a quiet corner of Ottawa by the junction of Sussex Avenue and Stanley Drive, there stands a fine memorial to the Canadian Officers loaned to Great Britain during the Second World War…
Read more on We will remember them… | Reply (4)
5th November 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Pope Francis often talks of the need for priests to take risks, to get out into the streets, to live the message of the Gospel. This week I met a group of people who are living witnesses to just such an approach – descendants, relatives and friends of Msgr Hugh O’Flaherty, Major Sam Derry, and […]
Read more on Taking risks for the Church | Reply (3)
4th June 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
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 […]
Read more on Time to Act: mobilising Catholic networks against sexual violence in conflict | Reply (1)
29th April 2014
Beirut, Lebanon
This month, I attended the reopening of the Anglo-American Cemetery in Beirut, a century after its inauguration. This small corner of a foreign field in Furn el-Shubbak is the final resting place of a hundred or so explorers and pioneers who came to Lebanon in the 19th and early 20th centuries – missionaries, educationalists, relief […]
Read more on One Hundred Years On: Here’s to the Crazy Ones | Reply (3)
12th November 2012
Paris, France
I’m speaking to you just after the commemorations here of 11 November, when we look back and remember those killed in all the wars in the last hundred years. This was my first time in Paris attending these commemorations and it was the privilege to be at the Arc de Triomphe where the Président de […]
Read more on Remembrance 2012: Lest we forget | Reply (1)
10th November 2012
Beirut, Lebanon
Following Remembrance services in Saida and Tripoli on Thursday, we have just left the third, in the beautifully kept Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Beirut. The torrential rain cleared, and we honoured those who fell, driving Vichy from Lebanon in 1941. We share these poignant moments with former allies and former foes. The allied contingent […]
Read more on History, Remembrance and ‘The Key of Hope’ | Reply (5)