Tag: catholic

6th December 2017 Holy See

Sr. Patricia Ebegbulem, SSL

African Coordinator of ANHAT & Talitha Kum

The fight to end human trafficking: Nigerian women religious’ perspective

To mark the UN-led 16 Days of Activism to End Violence against Women and Girls, the British Embassy to the Holy See is delighted to introduce you to Sr. Patricia Ebegbulem, whose network of religious sisters in Nigeria is trying to make a reality of the UN’s theme “Leave no-one behind” for modern slavery victims […]

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6th March 2017 Holy See

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by Sally Axworthy

Ambassador to the Holy See

International Women’s Day: Sisters are Doing it for Themselves

We usually think of the Catholic Church as a male-dominated organisation because priests staff the hierarchy. But, as I have been discovering in my first six months in Rome, women play an important role in the Church. Indeed there are nearly twice as many religious sisters (800,000) as there are Catholic priests (around 400,000) – […]

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19th September 2016 Holy See

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by Sally Axworthy

Ambassador to the Holy See

Starting at the Holy See

May I introduce myself? I am Sally Axworthy, the new British Ambassador to the Holy See. I presented my credentials to Pope Francis on 19 September. Over the coming four years, I hope to blog regularly to give an insight into the work of this Embassy I come to Rome having just spent six months learning […]

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21st September 2015

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by Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

Cuba and the Church: from cocktail wars to a common future

Just over ten years ago, the European Union embassies in Cuba, including the United Kingdom, were involved in a stand-off with the Cuban government in Havana that became immortalised as “the cocktail wars”. Despite the seemingly frivolous impression given of the spat (which concerned the invitation to embassy receptions of dissident Cubans), there were deadly […]

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1st September 2015

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by Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

Preferential option for the poor: Government and Church together

Picture Paul McSherry.

There is plenty of bad news about. But let’s also celebrate the success stories. One such has been the partnership between the UK’s principal Catholic charities from the Caritas Internationalis family and the British government in their joint efforts to maximise funds raised by British donors to support projects benefiting some of the world’s poorest people. […]

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10th July 2015

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by Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

Pope Francis and Bolivia

The following is a guest blog by Steve Townsend, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy to the Holy See Pope Francis is currently in Latin America, visiting Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay. There is a particular interest for me, as I spent over three years in Bolivia as Deputy Head of Mission, which left me with many […]

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1st July 2015

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by Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

Global networks

This is a networked world. And yet there are few genuinely global networks out there. By that I mean networks that have a capacity to operate globally, co-ordinated centrally but operating in capillary fashion, horizontally in a radial pattern as well as vertically in a hub and spoke model. One of the reasons why we […]

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14th May 2015

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by Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

Ecumenists and Diplomats

Amongst the Vasari frescoes In the Sala Regia in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican is a series to make ecumenists blanche. It depicts the planning and implementation of the St Bartholomew’s Eve Massacre – the massacre in Paris on 23-24 August 1572, ordered by the King of France, of thousands of French Huguenot Protestants. […]

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20th January 2015

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by Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

The Jesuits: revival, restoration or re-establishment

Earlier this week, the embassy co-hosted with the Pontifical Gregorian University – the university in Rome run by the Jesuits – an event to commemorate the bicentenary of the decision by Pope Pius VII to re-establish the Society of Jesus in 1814, 41 years after its suppression by Pope Clement XIV. This was much more […]

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