Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Holy See Ambasciatore del Regno Unito alla Santa Sede | |
---|---|
Incumbent Christopher Trott since 2021 | |
Style | His Excellency |
Appointer | King Charles III |
Inaugural holder | Thomas Aubin First Attaché resident at Rome Sir Henry Elliot First Envoy extraordinary to the Holy See Sir Mark Evelyn Heath First Ambassador to the Holy See |
Formation | 1832 First Attaché resident at Rome 1863 First Envoy extraordinary 1982 First Ambassador |
Website | UK and Holy See |
The Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Holy See has held that title since 1982. Before that the British heads of mission to the Holy See were styled Attaché resident at Rome and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.
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Transcription
Let’s say you want to become pope, head of the Catholic Church and shepherd to over 1 billion faithful. What requirements must you have for this lofty position: 1) Be a catholic and 2) Be a man. Which seems a little thin… and, while it’s technically possible for a regular Sunday Catholic to become pope, the last time this happened was essentially never because becoming pope isn’t like becoming president, you can’t just run for office. Selecting the pope is an inside job and the men who do it are the cardinals, and while in theory they can select any catholic man to become pope, in practice they prefer to elevate one of their own. The last time a non-cardinal become pope was more than 600 years ago. So, while it isn’t an official requirement, it’s an unofficial, official requirement. Thus in order to be pope you’ll first need to be a cardinal and to do that you’ll need to start climbing the catholic corporate ladder.* Step 1: Become a Priest. Unlike some churches where you can fill out a form online and – poof – ordained. The Catholic Church treats becoming a priest as a real, you-need-training profession. So you’re going to require a lot of education: usually a college degree in Catholic Philosophy and then a masters in divinity. In addition to your educational qualifications, you must also be: A man Unmarried, Willing to remain celibate forever.† If you meet these requirements, and have been working with the church, then you can be officially ordained as a priest. Which basically means you get to run a Catholic Church, or work with another priest who does. But, you want onward and to do that you need to take the job of the man who just made you a priest. Step 2: Become a Bishop Bishops are a much more select group: while there are about 400,000 catholic priests world wide, there are only about 5,000 bishops. While priests get churches, bishops get cathedrals, from which they oversee a number of local churches. To advance your career you must wait for a bishop in your area to be forced into retirement at age 75 or die sooner than that – freeing up space for you. But you can’t just apply, because there’s already a secret list of potential bishops that’s updated every three years based on who the current bishops in your area think would make a good replacement for one of their own. To be on that list, in addition to the obvious requirement of being a pious person, you should also: Be least 35 years old Have been priest for at least five years Have a doctorate in theology (or equivalent) Assuming you’re all these things, your name may, or may not be on the secret list. The local bishops then give that list to the pope’s ambassador for your country, known as the Apostolic Nuncio. The Nuncio picks three priests from the list, does in-depth research on them, conducts interviews and selects the one he thinks is best. But it’s not over, because the Nuncio sends his report to Vatican City and the congress of bishops who work there reviewing potential appointments from around the world. If the congress of bishops doesn’t like any of the three candidates, they can tell the Nuncio to start over: returning to the list, picking another three candidates – doing more research, more interviews and sending off the results. When the congress of bishops is happy with one of the Nuncio’s candidates that name is given to the pope, who can reject the candidate and start the whole process over. It shouldn’t be a surprise that from a vacancy to a bishop’s replacement can take months and, on occasion, years. But assuming that a bishop in your area retired (or died) at the right time and you were on the secret list of good priests and the Nuncio picked you and you made it through his interview and the congress of bishops approved you and the pope didn’t veto you – poof now you’re now a bishop. But you’re still not on top. The penultimate promotion is… Step 3: Become a Cardinal. Despite the fancy name and snazzy red outfits to match cardinals are not the bosses of bishops, they are bishops, just with an additional title and additional responsibilities – the most notable of which is electing the new pope.‡ The only way to become a cardinal is to get to current pope to appoint you as one – and of the 5,000 bishops, only about 200 are ever cardinals. But let’s say your ambition doesn’t go unnoticed by the pope and he makes you a cardinal – now it’s time to play the waiting game for his death or retirement – and with popes death is vastly more likely. When either happens the cardinals under the age of 80 are brought to Vatican City where they are isolated from the outside world – presumably by taking away their cell phones and tablets and carrier pigeons. Once sequestered, the election of a new pope can begin. These elections are never exactly the same because the ex-pope leaves instructions on how he wants his replacement to be picked, but in general it works like this: four times a day the cardinals go to the Sistine Chapel to vote – to become pope one of them must get a 2/3rds majority. There’s a big dose of musent-be-too-hasty here as the cardinals don’t just raise their hands, or use a modern preferential voting system, but instead write down one name on a piece of paper stand before the alter and say a long latin phrase, before officially casting the ballot. Once all the cardinals have done this, the votes are counted and then burned. This why TV news stations covering the election of the pope use super-modern-hd-livestreaming cameras to look at a chimney. If the smoke is black, no new pope. The high victory threshold, and tediously slow voting process, is why it takes so long to elect a new pope. It’s usually at least two weeks of voting four times a day six days a week (with one day a week for prayer) but the record length is three years. Assuming you, eventually, win the support of your fellow cardinals, you have one final thing to do before becoming pope: pick yourself a new name. There is no formal rule, you can name yourself anything you like but it’s tradition to take the name of a previous pope. Upon your acceptance of the job, the final ballots are burned clean to make the smoke white and announce to the world that a new pope has been selected. So that’s the career path: be born into the right half of the population, become one of a billion catholics, then one of 400,000 priests, then one of 5,000 bishops, then one of 200 cardinals, wait for the current pope to die or retire, and convince 2/3rds of your fellow cardinals to select you as the one, the only pope.
History of representation
Diplomatic relations were broken off between the Pope and the Kingdom of England in 1534, after the Act of Supremacy of that year declared that King Henry VIII was "the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England". This break continued throughout the remaining existence of the Kingdom of England and its successor the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800). However, after the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland an "unofficial official" was kept in Rome from the mid-nineteenth century, holding the title of representative to the Papal States.[1] With the rise of Italian nationalism, the Papal States were conquered by the House of Savoy and a unified Kingdom of Italy was declared in 1861. In 1874, due to the Roman Question, the Conservative government withdrew this representative, reasoning that it was not cost-effective to maintain a representative to a "non-existent state".[1] Missions between 1874 and 1914 were designated "special and temporary".[1]
In 1914 the United Kingdom formally re-established diplomatic relations with the Holy See. A minister was sent to the papal court during the First World War to court the favour of the Pope towards the Triple Entente.[1] This mission was maintained after the war for the perceived value of its prestige (a "quiet place for a not very distinguished diplomat") and the conflicts in Ireland, Malta, Quebec, and Australia, which had Roman Catholic dimensions.[1] After the rupture in 1930–33 due to difficulties in Malta, the post was filled with more experienced and respected diplomats.[1]
From 1914 to 1982 the diplomatic representative of the United Kingdom to the Holy See had the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, as did the UK's representatives to many other countries until the 1960s, but partly because there was already a British ambassador in Rome, to Italy. The British envoy to the Holy See was upgraded to Ambassador in 1982.[2] It has been claimed that the Minister was always a Protestant,[3] and that Francis Campbell, appointed ambassador in 2005, was "the first Catholic to hold the position of emissary of the Court of St James to the Holy See since the Reformation";[4] in fact, however, the first two 20th-century envoys, Sir Henry Howard and Count de Salis, were Catholics.
List of heads of mission
Attachés resident at Rome
The United Kingdom was represented by an Attaché to the legation at Florence resident at Rome.[5]
- 1832–1844: Thomas Aubin[5]
- 1844–1853: William Petre[5]
- 1853–1858: Richard Lyons[6]
- 1858–1870: Odo Russell[7]
- 1870–1874: Henry Clarke Jervoise[8]
- 1874: post abolished[9]
Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary
- 1914–1916: Sir Henry Howard
- 1916–1923: John Francis Charles, 7th Count de Salis-Soglio
- 1922–1928: Hon. Sir Odo Russell
- 1928–1930: Sir Henry Chilton
Relations downgraded due to the Church's interference in Maltese politics
Chargés d'affaires
- 1930–1932: George Ogilvie-Forbes
- 1932–1933: Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick
Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary
- 1933–1934: Sir Robert Clive
- 1934–1936: Sir Charles Wingfield
- 1936–1947: Sir D'Arcy Osborne
- 1947–1951: Sir Victor Perowne
- 1951–1954: Sir Walter Roberts
- 1954–1957: Sir Douglas Howard
- 1957–1960: Sir Marcus Cheke
- 1960–1965: Sir Peter Scarlett
- 1965–1970: Sir Michael Williams
- 1970–1975: Desmond Crawley
- 1975–1977: Dugald Malcolm
- 1978–1980: Geoffrey Allan Crossley
- 1980–1982: Sir Mark Evelyn Heath
Ambassadors
- 1982–1985: Sir Mark Evelyn Heath
- 1985–1988: David Lane
- 1988–1991: John Broadley
- 1991–1995: Andrew Palmer
- 1995–1998: Maureen MacGlashan
- 1998–2002: Mark Pellew
- 2002–2005: Kathryn Colvin
- 2005–2011: Francis Campbell
- 2011–2011: George Edgar (chargé d'affaires)
- 2011–2016: Nigel Baker
- 2016–2021: Sally Axworthy
- 2021–present[update]: Christopher Trott[10]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f Chadwick, 1988, p. 2.
- ^ Chadwick, 1988, p. 3.
- ^ Chadwick, 1988, p. 14.
- ^ "First Catholic to represent UK at Holy See defies all stereotypes: Interview in Irish Times". irishtimes.com. 2 February 2009. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
- ^ a b c S.T. Bindoff, E.F. Malcolm Smith and C.K. Webster, British Diplomatic Representatives 1789-1852, Royal Historical Society, 1934
- ^ The London Gazette, 22 February 1856
- ^ The London Gazette, 18 November 1862
- ^ Brown, Sue, Joseph Severn, A Life: The Rewards of Friendship, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp.303-9
- ^ The Vatican - Diplomatic Intercourse, Hansard, 10 February 1882
- ^ "Holy See: New British Ambassador accredited". British Embassy Holy See. 4 September 2021.
See also
References
- Chadwick, Owen (1988) Britain and the Vatican During the Second World War, Cambridge University Press
External links
- UK and Holy See, gov.uk