On April 19, a luncheon was hosted for the Herald at the Palazzo Taverna on Via di Monte Giordano in Rome by Tom Faure-Romanelli and his wife Ilaria. The guest of honour was Christopher Trott, the British ambassador to the Holy See. Other guests included Amanda Bowman, chair of the Catholic Herald Institute, Michael La Civita, and Diane Montagna, the Herald’s Vatican fellow in Rome. Ambassador Trott was appointed in the summer of 2021 after serving as ambassador to the Republic of South Sudan. His Excellency noted that the Vatican delegation to the Coronation would be very different from that of 1953 as they would not be seated in a papal tent outside Westminster Abbey.
CNEWA reception
On the same evening, the Catholic Herald Institute were guests at the reception and dinner hosted by CNEWA, the papal aid agency, on the rooftop terrace of the Kolbe Hotel in Rome. Held in honour of its trustee, the Most Rev William Murphy, Bishop Emeritus of Rockville Centre, special guests included Cardinal Dolan and Msgr Peter Vaccari, CNEWA’s chair and president respectively, and Fra’ John Dunlap, the new Grand Master of the Order of Malta. Bishop Murphy was presented with CNEWA’s Faith and Culture award “for his many years in service to the people of God as bishop, pastor, teacher and ambassador of peace in the Americas and throughout the world”, said Mgr Vaccari. The affection for Bishop Murphy was clear among the guests, as well as a recognition of the extraordinary work of CNEWA in the Middle East, North Africa, India and Eastern Europe. The dinner also marked the reopening of the offices of CNEWA and its operating agency in the Middle East, Pontifical Mission. The reception, sponsored by Peter’s Way Tours and the Kolbe Hotel, was held at the hotel which was once home to Saint Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish priest and journalist who volunteered to exchange his life for that of another at Auschwitz in 1941. During pre-dinner drinks, a Franciscan Polish friar gave a short talk about Kolbe’s life. The CNEWA delegation was also in Rome for the annual Rector’s Dinner at the Pontifical North American College.
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