London, England - The Government has appointed a Roman Catholic as ambassador to the Vatican for the first time since the Reformation. The appointment of Francis Campbell, 36, a career diplomat from Northern Ireland, has broken an unspoken assumption that the British ambassador to the Holy See should not be a Catholic. The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, described the appointment as “imaginative” and said it put an end the notion that the post was reserved for non-Catholics.
Relations between the UK and the Holy See were restored in 1914 after a break of 350 years. An apostolic delegate – nowadays a “papal nuncio” – was appointed in 1938 to represent the Holy See to Great Britain. Full diplomatic relations were restored in 1982 prior to Pope John Paul II’s visit to the UK.
The job has previously always gone to a Protestant, with a Catholic as deputy, ever since a Foreign Office memo in 1917 stated that Britain’s Vatican representative “should not be filled with an unreasoning awe of the Pope”. This continued after 1982, when the post was raised to ambassadorial status.
The Holy See, the world's smallest state but a key player in world diplomacy, is the seat of government of the Catholic Church.
The Cardinal said: “An experienced diplomat who has worked closely with the Prime Minister, Mr Campbell is also familiar with the language and the workings of the Catholic Church. This is an imaginative appointment which has broken with the unspoken assumption that the British representative to the Holy See should not be a Catholic.”