Minister meets Vatican envoy ahead of Syria talks

A Vatican diplomat this week met the British Government Minister with responsibility for the Middle East on the eve of a conference in London on Syria, writes Christopher Lamb.

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood (pictured) was in Rome to meet Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, before the archbishop travelled to the United Kingdom for the Syria gathering, organised by the British Government to help the plight of the Syrian people (more than 13 million have been displaced or are vulnerable).

A diplomatic source said Mr Ellwood and Archbishop Gallagher had a “long and useful discussion”.

Achieving peace in the Middle East is a key concern for the Holy See and Pope Francis who recently met the President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani. Iran has been a key ally of the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad while Western nations have mainly supported Assad’s opponents during the country’s protracted civil war.

Next month the archbishop, who is British, will be in London as an official guest of the British Government where he will meet a range of senior Government Ministers including the Foreign Secretary. Archbishop Gallagher recently said the Vatican wanted Britain to remain in the European Union.

Relations between the Catholic Church and the Government have at times been strained with the Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols criticising welfare policy. Soon after Eric Pickles, then Secretary of State for Communities, pulled out of attending the consistory where the then Archbishop Nichols was made a cardinal.

Neither the Prime Minister, David Cameron, nor his Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, have visited Pope Francis or the Vatican.

Mr Hammond was, however, in Rome this week as was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, did attend a Vatican conference on human trafficking, which was organised by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.