Chris Trott, HM Ambassador to the Holy See, talks to Amanda Bowman about his work.
‘The mission of the Ambassador to the Holy See is defined by the nature of the role. It’s important to start with and to recognise that I am at the Vatican as a British ambassador to another state, another member of the family of nations. Our relationship with the Holy See looks at the international agenda (as it is perceived in London) and issues and concerns that are important to the Vatican, while trying to identify common interests and approaches – or indeed where we might have differences that we want to discuss.
Obviously, the additional factor in this relationship is that the Pope is not just the Vatican’s head of state, but also the leader of the Catholic Church, so my engagement is with a leader of faith and someone who is a global influencer. That also means engaging with the Church in its broadest sense in terms of all the religious communities and other agencies that in many cases regard Rome as their headquarters – and in all cases, as their spiritual home.
The number of people engaged in this is staggering. Hundreds of thousands of people work not just on the periphery but also directly to support people who are less fortunate than us. Amid the global effort to address poverty the Church has people who can actually engage directly with situations on the ground in a way that governments can’t.
This gives me the opportunity to present to London the totality of what the Catholic Church is doing. Take a global humanitarian agency like Caritas for instance: if you’re going to engage with them on Ukraine, you start with Caritas Ukraine, but their headquarters in Rome has a role in their policymaking. Hence, London needs to know all of what they are doing, so I get engaged with the head of Caritas Internationalis here.
It’s a sort of collective of not just state effort, but also humanitarian work, NGO engagement, and so on – it has many formats. And that makes it challenging for bureaucrats in London to put neatly in a box. And so it falls to me to try and help them to understand quite how many boxes the Catholic Church, the Holy See and the Pope could all fit into.
Full diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the British Government were not formally restored until 1982, when Pope John Paul II made his pastoral visit to the UK. At that point, we agreed to exchange ambassadors and the relationship has got stronger and stronger over time. The warmth of our bond was evident when Queen Elizabeth II died, and with the King’s Coronation. It was the first time that a British monarch had died since we restored our full diplomatic relationship – and the response to the events demonstrated its strength.
The message that Pope Francis issued within hours of Her late Majesty’s death was a moving tribute to her, and to her long service to our country – which had been based on her strong Christian faith. In his address to the nation King Charles assured his people of his own commitment to service, based on his own Christian faith. For the Holy See such a commitment distinguishes the United Kingdom from many other countries with whom they also have excellent relationships.
That was something that Pope Francis was very conscious of when he sent his coronation gift to the King: a fragment of the True Cross. And the fact that the relic went into the Cross of Wales and will be shared between Welsh Anglicans and Welsh Catholics is also an extraordinarily symbolic gesture – which I’m sure will have been greatly appreciated both in Whitehall and indeed in Rome.
The foreign minister of the Holy See is effectively Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary of Relations with States. That’s fantastic for me, because he’s a Liverpudlian who knows my country as well as I do. When I need to discuss something I don’t ring up Pope Francis’s private secretary to ask for an appointment, but I do request a meeting with Archbishop Gallagher – because the most natural dialogue of any diplomatic relationship is between an ambassador and a foreign minister.
Hence, when I have visitors from the British Government my starting point with them would be to arrange a meeting in the Secretariat of State. Something that is important for our Government to recognise globally is that while faith frequently appears to be part of the problem in a conflict, faith just as frequently can be part of the solution. Engaging with faith leaders as they seek to engage in a peace process can be hugely beneficial.
My previous experience as ambassador in South Sudan meant that when I took up this posting I was a known entity to the Holy See, as I had met them before. I think it was also helpful because I saw the context in which – not just on the political front – the Church was engaged in a society like South Sudan: rebuilding communities torn apart by conflict, addressing victims of sexual violence, providing health care services in places that we just couldn’t reach, and educating young people in an incredibly difficult environment.
The fact that I have seen all this for myself means that I am a more convincing advocate in my own system of engagement, and can talk with knowledge with the Vatican about the impact that the Holy See can have – even when we don’t aways agree what role the Vatican should play and at what level it should be engaged. It’s a question of getting the balance right, to show that the Pope is concerned and can bring succour even to people who are not necessarily Christians by drawing global attention to the situation – such as when Pope Francis suggests in a general audience that the world should be praying for them.
The Embassy is important, and not just to the Holy See but also to international diplomatic efforts – I hope people grasp that. Maybe more now than ever, in what has been called the post-truth world, where people get their information from sources like social media and perhaps don’t pay much attention to the actual news and what is really happening in the world. That certainly doesn’t solve the world’s problems. I think that what’s important is that we still can have the kind of conversations I have been describing here, not just here in Rome, but everywhere else as well.
It’s not always easy, certainly. I have huge admiration for two of the most amazing women in the British diplomatic service – our former ambassador in Kyiv and our ambassador in Moscow – who have served in those difficult environments. Until 1970 a woman working in the diplomatic service had to retire or resign when she got married. Now we have women ambassadors in Washington, Berlin and Tokyo, as well as the High Commissioner in Canberra. As for me, after a career of over 32 years, I’ve hardly ever got up in the morning and not wanted to go to work – I recognise that I’m in a hugely fortunate situation. The reason that I’ve wanted to go to work is because I feel that the work that I am doing is important, and I love doing it for my country. I’m a very lucky man.”
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