UK in the Holy See
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Britain's foreign policy and the Holy See
26 June 2007
Ambassador Campbell speech to the Circolo di Roma"The Vatican ... participating in cutting-edge diplomacy"
In the keynote speech "Britain’s Foreign Policy and the Holy See" addressed to the Circolo di Roma on 27 June 2007, HM Ambassador to the Holy See Francis Campbell focuses on the value of the Holy See as a global listening post, explaining - under both historical and contemporary perspective - why the Holy See is "a valuable, indeed vital part of the United Kingdom’s diplomatic network."
The global and local dimension; a neutral and respected interlocutor; the uniqueness of being both state and religion; a global opinion former - these are the central themes of Ambassador Campbell's attempt to capture what the Holy See actually is in contemporary foreign policy.
Mr Campbell touches on inter-faith and climate change as examples of areas of the work with the Holy See:
"The UK greatly values the Holy See’s commitment to reconciliation and harmony between persons and peoples and to promote contacts and understanding between faiths. We live in an era rich with examples of inter-religious dialogue. The late Pope’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 2000 for example, when Jews, Muslims and Christians met in a spirit of fraternity. […] Such examples give great hope and send a clear sign to the world that faiths will not allow their doctrinal differences to stand in the way of greater co-operation."
"The Holy See has a central indeed vital role to play in tackling climate change. In April, the Holy See convened an international conference on Climate Change. In his message to the Conference, Pope Benedict highlighted the role of individual action and choice – he invited everyone to adopt "a way of living, models of production and consumption marked by respect for creation and the need for sustainable development of peoples, keeping in mind the universal distribution of goods, as is so often mentioned in the Church's social doctrine".
Ambassador Campbell concludes his speech by stating: " We practice the art of diplomacy at the world’s oldest institution, and while it is often said that the Vatican thinks in centuries, we see that this does not prevent it from participating in cutting-edge diplomacy whether in 1939, 1979 or 2007."
The global and local dimension; a neutral and respected interlocutor; the uniqueness of being both state and religion; a global opinion former - these are the central themes of Ambassador Campbell's attempt to capture what the Holy See actually is in contemporary foreign policy.
Mr Campbell touches on inter-faith and climate change as examples of areas of the work with the Holy See:
"The UK greatly values the Holy See’s commitment to reconciliation and harmony between persons and peoples and to promote contacts and understanding between faiths. We live in an era rich with examples of inter-religious dialogue. The late Pope’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 2000 for example, when Jews, Muslims and Christians met in a spirit of fraternity. […] Such examples give great hope and send a clear sign to the world that faiths will not allow their doctrinal differences to stand in the way of greater co-operation."
"The Holy See has a central indeed vital role to play in tackling climate change. In April, the Holy See convened an international conference on Climate Change. In his message to the Conference, Pope Benedict highlighted the role of individual action and choice – he invited everyone to adopt "a way of living, models of production and consumption marked by respect for creation and the need for sustainable development of peoples, keeping in mind the universal distribution of goods, as is so often mentioned in the Church's social doctrine".
Ambassador Campbell concludes his speech by stating: " We practice the art of diplomacy at the world’s oldest institution, and while it is often said that the Vatican thinks in centuries, we see that this does not prevent it from participating in cutting-edge diplomacy whether in 1939, 1979 or 2007."
Further information
1. Read the full text of the Ambassador's speech.
2. The text is also available in PDF format (91KB). To open a PDF file, you will need a PDF reader such as the free Adobe application Acrobat Reader.
3. Il testo del discorso è disponibile anche in italiano in formato HTML o in formato PDF (82KB). Per leggere un file PDF è richiesto un visualizzatore quale ad esempio l'applicativo gratuito Acrobat Reader.