Holy See?United Kingdom relations
are
foreign relations
between the
Holy See
and the
United Kingdom
.
The Holy See maintains an
Apostolic nunciature
in
London
, and the United Kingdom has an
Embassy
in the
Vatican City
. The current
Nuncio
in London is
Claudio Gugerotti
, and the British Ambassador is Chris Trott.
Bilateral relations
History
[
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]
Early relations
[
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]
In circa 595,
Pope Gregory I
sent a mission now known as the
Gregorian Mission
to the
Kingdom of Kent
.
Augustine
became the first
Archbishop of Canterbury
in circa 597. During the
Middle Ages
and until the
Protestant Reformation
in the 16th century, the
Kingdom of England
and the
Kingdom of Scotland
were
Catholic
kingdoms with diplomatic relations with the
Papal States
.
In 1209,
Pope Innocent III
put the Kingdom of England under
interdict
amidst rising disputes with
John, King of England
, after he refused to accept
Stephen Langton
, the papal candidate for
Archbishop of Canterbury
. The dispute was resolved in 1213 when John conceded power to the Pope by becoming his vassal and agreed to pay feudal taxes to the Catholic Church.
In 1479,
Edward IV of England
appointed
John Sherwood
as the first Resident Ambassador in the Papal States. Diplomatic relations were broken in 1536, following the establishment of the
Anglican Church
by
Henry VIII
. Diplomatic relations were re-established in 1553 under
Mary I of England
, who appointed
Sir Edward Carne
as her Ambassador. During the reign of
Elizabeth I
diplomatic relations were broken again due to the
papal bull
Regnans in Excelsis
in 1570. Official relations with the Papal States were then prohibited by law. The two countries nevertheless had occasional contacts.
In 1621, the English court despatched George Gage to the Papal court in order to obtain permission for
Charles I of England
to marry the Spanish infanta, a marriage that in the event did not take place. But when Charles I married a French Catholic princess named
Henrietta Maria
, he obtained the blessing of
Pope Gregory XV
, who used the opportunity to despatch
Gregorio Panzani
to England as his envoy. Panzani was followed as papal envoy by the Scottish Franciscan
George Conn
.
In 1686, King
James VII of Scotland
and II of England despatched as envoy to the Papal States
the Earl of Castlemaine
and received as papal envoy Count
Fernando D'Adda
. Relations were broken again following the
Glorious Revolution
in 1688. The Papal States recognised
James Francis Edward Stuart
as James VIII and III until his death in 1766, but not his son
Charles
, which gave subtle recognition to the reigning
House of Hanover
. This helped start the reform of the anti-Catholic penal laws, achieved in part by the
Quebec Act 1774
and the
Papists Act 1778
. Sir
John Coxe Hippisley
's brief mission to Rome to explore the possibility of restoring relations failed in 1779?1780.
Unofficial relations were formed again during the
French Revolution
, as both the British and the Papal courts were interested in coordinating policies against the spread of the revolution across Europe. In 1792, the British court despatched Sir
John Coxe Hippisley
to Rome as envoy, a position he held until 1795. The papal court despatched Monsignor
Charles Erskine
to London as envoy, a position he held until 1801. Both countries found themselves at various times enemies of France during this period and therefore had a degree of commonality of interests, not least because of the
dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution
and the French establishment of the
Roman Republic
of 1798?99.
After the UK's formation
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]
The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
came into existence in 1801 with the
union of the Kingdom of Ireland to Great Britain
, which had been formed by the
union of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England
in 1707. With the
Anglo-Irish Treaty
of 1921, all of Ireland became an independent dominion. Northern Ireland exercised its right under that treaty to separate from the remainder of Ireland and maintain the union with Great Britain, which created the current state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The Holy See is the pre-eminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church and recognised in international law as a sovereign entity with which diplomatic relations can be maintained.
[1]
Pastor Bonus
, an
apostolic constitution
, defines the Vatican's diplomatic relations with states as the Holy See.
[2]
Due to the continuity of the Holy See from early times, it is possible to see that the various parts of the United Kingdom had relations with the Holy See prior to their incorporation within the Union (and in Ireland's case, following it - see
Holy See ? Ireland relations
).
Following the
Catholic Emancipation
Act of 1829, legal obstacles to relations with the Papal States were removed, but the British government still refrained from accrediting an envoy to Rome, though British envoys to some Italian city states were also charged with conducting negotiations with the Papal Court. During the Irish tenants'-rights
Plan of Campaign
in the 1880s, the Papacy condemned the activities in the encyclical "Saepe Nos" (1888), even though most of the tenants were Catholics.
[3]
20th century
[
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The United Kingdom did not re-establish relations with the Holy See until December 1914, following the outbreak of the
First World War
, as the British government was apprehensive about possible growing German and Austrian influence over Vatican policies. The first envoy selected was
Henry Howard
, a British Catholic, who was followed by the 7th
Count de Salis
. In order to maintain that this diplomatic mission was temporary in nature, it was titled "Special Mission to the Vatican". Only in 1923 was the mission's title changed to "His Majesty's Legation to the Holy See".
In May 1949,
Princess Margaret
visited
Pope Pius XII
in the Vatican City. It was the first visit of a British Royal to the Holy See after hundreds of years.
[4]
The
problem of Northern Ireland
has been a major issue in British-Vatican relations, and during the 1970s the Holy See expressed its hopes for a speedy and just solution on the issue. On 1 June 1974,
Pope Paul VI
called on all armed factions to take part in peace talks:
[5]
We earnestly beg that all violence should cease, from whatever side it may come, for it is contrary to the law of God and to a Christian and civilized way of life; that, in response to the common Christian conscience and the voice of reason, a climate of mutual trust and dialogue be reestablished in justice and charity; that the real and deep-seated causes of social unrest ? which are not to be reduced to differences of a religious nature ? be identified and eliminated.
The Holy See also supported the British efforts at bringing to an end to racial segregation in Rhodesia (present day
Zimbabwe
)
[6]
and commended
Queen Elizabeth II
for her activities for peace among nations, and for peace between Catholics and Anglicans.
[7]
Recent developments
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Full relations were recognised in 1982 when
Pope John Paul II visited the UK
. This led to the first full exchange of ambassadors between the UK and the Holy See that year.
[
citation needed
]
On 9 September 2011, Ambassador
Nigel Marcus Baker
presented his credentials to
Pope Benedict XVI
. In his speech, the British Ambassador presented three main goals of Vatican-UK relations, namely facing existential threats such as climate change and nuclear proliferation, promoting interfaith dialogue to achieve peace and working to reduce world poverty.
[8]
The UK Embassy to the Holy See is co-located with the
UK Embassy to the Republic of Italy
at Via XX Settembre in Rome, following the 2006 closure of the rented building that had served as the UK's Embassy to the Holy See. Some in the Vatican protested the co-location of the UK's embassies, complaining that senior officials of the Holy See should not be required to visit the UK embassy to Italy, a country with which the Holy See has an entirely different and at times fractious relationship.
[9]
The Holy See's Nunciature to Great Britain is the diplomatic post of the Holy See whose representative is called the
Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain
with the rank of an ambassador. The office of the nunciature is located at 54 Parkside,
Wimbledon Village
, London.
State visits
[
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]
Queen Elizabeth II
first visited the Vatican during the pontificate of
Pope Pius XII
, before her own accession. Her second visit to the Vatican was a private visit (during a state visit to the Italian Republic) on 5 May 1962 when she was received by
Pope John XXIII
. She made two
State Visits
during the pontificate of John Paul II in 1980 and 2000.
The
Prince of Wales
and the
Duchess of Cornwall
met
Pope Benedict XVI
at the Vatican on 27 April 2009. Prince Charles and his second wife, Camilla, were granted a private audience with the pontiff. It was Charles's first audience at the Vatican since his divorce from the late
Princess Diana
.
[10]
Pope Benedict XVI
was the first Pope to make
an official visit to the United Kingdom on 16 September 2010
, which was accorded the status of a state visit. In a break with normal arrangements for state visits he arrived in
Edinburgh
rather than
London
and was granted an audience of Queen Elizabeth II at her official residence in Scotland, the Palace of
Holyrood House
. On the evening of the same day he celebrated the second Papal Mass ever held in Scotland at
Bellahouston Park
in
Glasgow
, with over 250,000 Scottish Catholics in attendance.
[11]
The first Papal Mass in Scotland was celebrated by his predecessor
Pope John Paul II
at
Bellahouston Park
,
Glasgow
, during his pastoral visit in 1982.
[12]
Queen Elizabeth II and
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
, while visiting Italian President
Giorgio Napolitano
in Rome, had an informal visit with
Pope Francis
on 3 April 2014. It was her seventh encounter with a pope and the fifth different pope she met.
[13]
List of British Royal visits to the Vatican
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]
- 29 April 1903 ?
King Edward VII
meets
Pope Leo XIII
- 1918 ?
Edward, Prince of Wales
meets
Pope Benedict XV
- 1923 ?
King George V
and
Queen Mary
meet
Pope Pius XI
- 10 May 1949 ?
Princess Margaret
meets
Pope Pius XII
- 13 April 1951 ?
Princess Elizabeth
and the
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
meet the Pope Pius XII
- 23 April 1959 ?
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother
and Princess Margaret meet the
Pope John XXIII
- 5 May 1961 ? Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh pay an Official Visit to the Vatican City, calling on Pope John XXIII.
- 17 October 1980 ? Queen Elizabeth II, with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, pays her first State Visit to the Holy See and meets
Pope John Paul II
- 1982 ? Pastoral Visit of Pope John Paul II in Scotland
- 29 August 1985 ?
Charles, Prince of Wales
and
Diana, Princess of Wales
meet Pope John Paul II
- 9 December 1985 ?
Prince
and
Princess Michael of Kent
meet Pope John Paul II
- 10 April 1990 ? Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh meets Pope John Paul II
- 3 November 1994 ?
Katharine, Duchess of Kent
meets Pope John Paul II
- 17 October 2000 ? Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh meet Pope John Paul II
- 2005 ?
Charles, Prince of Wales
attends the funeral of Pope John Paul II
- 27 April 2009 ?
Charles, Prince of Wales
and
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
meet
Pope Benedict XVI
- 16 September 2010 ? State visit of Pope Benedict XVI in Scotland.
- 3 April 2014 ? Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh meet
Pope Francis
- 27 April 2014 ?
Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester
and
Brigitte, Duchess of Gloucester
meet Pope Francis on the occasion of canonisation of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II
[14]
- 4 April 2017 ?
Charles, Prince of Wales
meets Pope Francis
- 13 April 2019 ?
Charles, Prince of Wales
meets Pope Francis on the occasion of canonisation of Cardinal
John Henry Newman
See also
[
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References
[
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]
- Additional sources
- Thomas E. Hachey (ed.),
Anglo?Vatican Relations 1914?1939: Confidential Annual Reports of the British Ministers to the Holy See
(Boston, 1972)
External links
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]
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