An ambassador writes
Francis Campbell's letter from Rome
(Published on 28 January 2006)

Of the many British legends in Rome, one of the most notable living ones is Mgr Charlie Burns, doyen of the Scots community and the honorary ecclesiastical adviser to the British Embassy to the Holy See. He lives in the splendid Palazzo Doria Pamphili, where he is a neighbour of another equally prominent British legend, David Willey, Rome correspondent of the BBC and contributor to The Tablet.  Mgr Charlie, a native of Glasgow and proud alumnus of the Pontifical Scots College, worked for more than 35 years in the Vatican's Secret Archives, until his retirement from papal service in 1997. His outstanding dedication to Holy See-UK relations was recognised by the Queen in 1998, when he was awarded an OBE.

Before leaving London, I had heard in the Foreign Office that Mgr Charlie was a mine of information, but that was clearly diplomatic understatement. Charlie has the magical ability of the true scholar and Celt to speak of events three centuries past as if he had just witnessed them on his way back from the coffee shop on the via del Plebiscito. If you get him started on UK-Vatican relations, you'll be transported back to the intricate relationships between the Houses of Hanover and Stuart.

Historically, the relationship between the Crown and the Papacy has been depicted as fraught. Yet in St Peter's Basilica today one can see a very visible link with the founding of the United Kingdom. Its royal coat of arms is to be found on the first pillar on the left as you enter the basilica. And in 1817, King George III paid for the monument to the memory of the last of the Stuart line. The monument, by Canova, remembers a father and his two sons who are buried in the crypt of St Peter's alongside the Popes: James the Old Pretender - the son of James II; Charles, the Young Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie; and his brother, Henry Duke of York, and Cardinal Bishop of Frascati. This is not the only example of King George's generosity. When the French invaded Rome and the last of the Stuarts, Henry Cardinal York fled, George helped him to reach safety in Venice, and supported him with a pension until he died in 1807. Mgr Charlie adds an intriguing contemporary twist: Cardinal York was also Bishop of Ostia and Dean of the Sacred College. His direct successor in both these roles until last Easter was Cardinal Ratzinger.

Many friends - professional and personal - have asked me in recent weeks what actually an Ambassador to the Vatican does. Rather than walk them through my diary I've tried to answer the more interesting and broader question: what value is an embassy to the Vatican?

Until 9/11, many in the West thought of society in a rather narrow post-Enlightenment way which had no time for faith. But religion, regardless of what one personally might think, is once again a key force in politics and foreign policy.

Modern Foreign Offices need to be equipped to talk and understand the language of faith and politics and the often complicated interaction between the two.

The Vatican is a key, if not unique space in that regard. We have the traditional bread and butter of embassy work where one has to keep abreast of various policies of interest, such as the EU, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, development and human rights. Much of this can be mostly reactive work which involves monitoring and reporting back to London on the latest happenings and any significant developments. But even in the traditional watching brief there is scope for change.

The Vatican could be a worthy interlocutor to engage on highlighting the moral case for changing the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, by focusing on the cost to the developing world. The growing importance of the theology of the environment could be translated into tangible policy developments in areas such as climate change. The Vatican is a key stabilising influence in the global faith/politics debate and helps keep discussion rational. The Vatican maintains a wide dialogue and is a credible interlocutor with many groups in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. We have an opening to influence the Vatican's thinking on a wide variety of themes and to get a return on investment which few other posts could match.

Among the areas where this is particularly the case are interfaith dialogue, development and arms.

Shortly after I arrived in Rome, I accepted a luncheon invitation to the Venerable English College. The Venerable, tracing its foundations to the tenth century, is proud of its position as the oldest English institution outside England. Before lunch, the Rector, Nick Hudson, kindly gave me a guided tour of the historic site. Fr Nick pointed out the many portraits and busts of his predecessors, including the present Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. Then he paused in front of a prominent tombstone in the college chapel and said: Ambassador, you'll be really interested in this one. He was one of your pre-Reformation predecessors. "Really?" I enquired. "Yes," he said calmly, "and he was poisoned by one of my predecessors."

Francis Campbell
HM Ambassador to the Holy See

Notes for Editors

Read the curriculum vitae of Francis Campbell.

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