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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8th November 2013
Diplomats represent their country’s interests. Traditionally, this leads to barely veiled competition between embassies accredited to third governments: for access, for influence, for commercial contracts. We will occasionally pull together for a common cause – EU embassies often do so as a matter of course – but generally as ‘coalitions of the willing’ rather than […]
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31st October 2013
The Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, Zion Evrony, recently took the initiative to invite diplomatic colleagues and officials of the Holy See to the Great Synagogue of Rome. The synagogue is one of the largest in Europe, built in 1870 between the Tiber and the old Jewish ghetto. The Chief Rabbi of Rome, Dr […]
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25th October 2013
One intangible measure of the strength of a bilateral relationship is how far relations go beyond strict government to government formalities. Relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See received a boost this week with a visit by 12 members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Holy See (APPG for short). The […]
16th October 2013
16 October is Blog Action Day, when bloggers across the world are encouraged to post on the same theme. I participated last year. As the theme for 2013 is “Human Rights”, as a blogger and as an Ambassador to the Holy See, I can hardly fail to do so again. I recommend to anyone interested […]
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9th October 2013
10 October is the 11th World Day against the Death Penalty. The campaign represents an alliance of 145 NGOs, bar associations, unions and other bodies – including Catholic organisations like the Community of Sant’Egidio – that was set up in Rome on 13 May 2002.The United Kingdom, which supports its work, campaigns for worldwide abolition […]
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27th September 2013
I suspect that until quite recently, not many people would have mentioned the Vatican in the same breath as the giants of global communications. Innovators like the BBC, global news operations like CNN, or social media like Facebook or Twitter. The Holy See speaks to us about tradition, the faith, the power of the pulpit. […]
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19th September 2013
I recently ran a competition on Twitter, inviting questions about the Holy See and the UK’s relationship with it. The response was impressive, with many searching questions. Below are the winners, their questions, and slightly lengthier answers than the 140 characters Twitter permits. Q. What made possible the great shift from historical anti-Catholicism to dialogue […]