(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met on Thursday with the new Australian ambassador to the Holy See, Melissa Hitchman, who presented her credentials.
The newest member of the Vatican’s diplomatic corps is an experienced career officer with Australia’s department of foreign affairs and trade. She has previously served overseas as first secretary at the Australian High Commission in London.
Diplomatic relations between Canberra and the Holy See were formally established in 1973 but Hitchman is both the first career diplomat and the first woman to hold the post of resident ambassador.
She sat down with Philippa Hitchen to talk about her goals and to share her perspectives on refugees, aboriginal rights, counter-terrorism and on the role of women in society ….
Listen:
Ambassador Hitchman says she’s building on the strong foundations of her predecessors but notes she’s the “first career diplomat and first woman to hold this position as resident ambassador”, something she describes as “a deliberate appointment” by her government and an opportunity continue the task of putting “Australia on the map”
She outlines four goals on her agenda, beginning with building up the partnerships between “a reformist pope in Francis” and “an innovative Australian government under [Prime Minister] Malcom Turnbull and foreign minister Julie Bishop and the rest of the cabinet”…
Secondly, the ambassador says she wants to elevate “in the public consciousness” the broad agenda that Australia and the Holy See already share on conflict resolution, on human trafficking, on peace building, and on gender empowerment. She notes her country’s bid as a candidate for the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2018 to 2020, saying “there’s a convergence of views there” too.
Alongside the “government-to-government links”, Melissa Hitchman highlights the “very strong and robust people-to-people set of links” that exist through the network of Australian religious men and women serving in the Curia or studying here in Rome, as well as the large number of students attending Australian Catholic University. Her third and fourth goals, she says, are to “tap into” those two links with religious and lay people in Rome in order “to make the relationship vibrant and current”.
Asked about the level of interest in the Holy See within Australia today, the ambassador says both sides “might be surprised at how much interest there actually is”. She describes Pope Francis as “probably the most recognized global leader”, respected for his views and held in affection by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. She says her country has just held a recent census and the results have yet to be made public, but the last survey in 2011 showed that over a quarter of the population (25.1%) identified as Catholic. She also reveals that her government has had “the largest expansion of its diplomatic footprint in 25 years” stressing that those in government and in wider society “see the value of this post and want to continue with it”.
Speaking about Australia as a pluralist, multi-cultural society, Ambassador Hitchman recalls the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, which she says “still resonates in the Australian consciousness”. She says her government has “a very robust policy on counterterrorism efforts”, with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop currently on a tour of Germany and the UK to talk about partnerships in areas including countering violent extremism. She believes the Church also has a role to play in building interfaith and intercultural harmony: while it’s “not for us to dictate what that role would be”, she says Pope Francis’ comments on inclusiveness and respect for different views, ethnicities and faiths is one that resonates in Australia.
Asked about criticisms of her country’s treatment of refugees and migrants, the new ambassador says there “seems to be a misconception that Australia doesn’t have borders that welcome refugees”. She notes that her country takes in “the globe’s highest per capita resettlement of UNHCR recongised refugees”. Australia currently accepts 13.000 refugees a year, but she says “we agree more needs to be done and that’s why [….] we’ve also agreed to take in 12.000 from the Syrian-Iraq conflict and our government has committed to increasing the refugee humanitarian intake up to 18.000 in 2018-2019”. Hitchman says the refugees accepted into Australia are “amongst the most disadvantaged and have waited the longest for resettlement”. She also notes her country is a member of the Bali process on people smuggling and human trafficking, adding that Australia’s ambassador on this issue was in Rome for a conference last June but “there was a sense our region was under-represented [..] and we look to improving that dialogue and expanding on it”.
Talking about the role of women in Australian society, the new ambassador says her country has “a very strong policy on gender empowerment and looks to partner with others such as the Holy See” on this issue. She mentions Australian lay woman Rosemary Goldie who was for many years the most senior woman in the Roman Curia as undersecretary of the Council for the laity and an auditor during the Second Vatican Council. The ambassador stresses that her government’s policy on gender empowerment, particularly in the Indo-Pacific “recognizes that where women are involved, it can lift outcomes right across board, not only for them, but for their economies, and we look at doing that in health, in education, in employment [and] politically. She cites a new gender action strategy recently launched by a portfolio minister “which is available on our website”.
Discussing the challenges of improving living standards for indigenous Australians, Hitchman says that her country “has had a struggle with its history and it’s one we’ve been very transparent and open about it”. She speaks of progress made through the 2008 apology to ‘the stolen generations’, under former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, as well as the ‘Closing the Gap’ report on health, education, employment and other issues for indigenous people. She says the Prime Minister has committed to reporting to Parliament every year and is also looking at recognition of indigenous people in the constitution which, she says, will be an important step forward.
Finally, the new ambassador talks about the Vatican cricket team, founded under her predecessor John McCarthy, saying that “we all bring different strengths to the position [and] I wouldn’t say sport or cricket was one of mine!” However, she notes that her government has a sports diplomacy agenda and Australia will be represented at the Faith and Sport conference coming up in the Vatican in October “ so there’ll be a continuation of sorts in that sphere, but not in exactly the same direction”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Resuming the daily Mass at the Casa Santa Marta after the summer break, Pope Francis, in his homily, spoke about the importance of working for peace in small, daily actions – because, he said, it is in small daily gestures that peace on a global scale is born.
It is not so much great international meetings that produce peace, he said. Rather, peace is a gift from God which is born in small places: in the heart, for instance; or in a dream, as happened to St Joseph when the angel told him not to fear to take Mary as his wife, because she would give the world “Emmanuel”, that is, “God with us.” And “God with us”, the Pope said, “is peace.”
A gift we work for each day
The Pope began his reflection from the liturgy, which pronounces the word “peace” from the very first prayer. The Holy Father focused on the words of the opening prayer, “that we might all grow in unity and in peace.” We must work “to grow” in peace, he said, because peace is a gift “that has its own life journey”; and so, each one of us must work to develop it:
“And this path of saints and sinners tells us that we too ought to take this gift of peace and make it the path in our own life, make it enter into us, make it enter the world. Peace is not made overnight; peace is a gift, but a gift that must be taken up and worked on every day. For this reason, we can say that peace is a gift that is crafted in the hands of men. We men and women, each day, should take a step towards peace: It is our work. It is our work with the gift we have received: to make peace.”
War in our hearts, war in the world
But how can we succeed in this objective? the Pope asked. He pointed to a specific word in the liturgy of the day, which speaks of “littleness”: that of Mary, which is celebrated at Christmas, and also that of Bethlehem, “so small that you are not even on the maps,” as Francis paraphrased:
“ Peace is a gift, it is a handcrafted gift that we must work for every day; but doing so in the small things, in daily ‘littleness.’ Great manifestations for peace, great international encounters, are not enough if peace is not then made in little things. On the contrary, you can speak of peace with splendid words, putting together a great conference… But if in your little things, in your heart, there is no peace, in your family there is no peace, in your neighbourhood there is no peace, in your place of work there is no peace, there will not be peace in the world.”
The question to ask
Pope Francis suggested that we should ask God for the grace of “the wisdom to make peace, in the little things of each day, but aiming at the horizons of the whole of humanity,” especially today, in which “we are living a war and all are seeking peace.” And in the meantime, he said, it would be good to start with this question:
“How is your heart, today? Is it at peace? If it is not at peace, before speaking of peace, make sure your own heart is at peace. How is your family, today? Is it at peace? If you are not able to bring peace to your family, your rectory, your congregation, bringing it more peace, then words of peace for the world are not enough. This is the question that I would like to ask today: How is the heart of each one of us? Is it at peace? How is the family of each one of us? Is it at peace? That’s how it is, isn’t it? To achieve peace in the world.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis invoked St. Teresa of Calcutta on Wednesday, in his final words to pilgrims and tourists before imposing his Apostolic Blessing at the end of the weekly General Audience.
“This past Sunday, we celebrated the caononisation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta,” said Pope Francis in special greetings to the sick, to young people, and to newlyweds in St. Peter’s Square for the occasion.
“Dear young people,” he continued, “become like her: artisans of mercy.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday greeted Ricardo Quaresma, a member of Portugal’s national football team which won the European Championship this summer. The encounter happened during the weekly General Audience .
The player brought Pope Francis a Portuguese national team shirt with the name “Francisco” and number “20” on the back. On Twitter and on his Facebook page before the meeting, Quaresma posted a photo of himself holding the shirt, with the caption “I am in the Vatican and bring a gift for Pope Francis. Do you think he is going to like it?”
Quaresma plays winger for the Turkish club Beşiktaş.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis surprised German-speaking pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, when he greeted them at the end of the weekly General Audience with a few improvised words in their native tongue.
“I am pleased to welcome the pilgrims from German-speaking countries and the Netherlands,” began the Holy Father, adding, “I greet in particular the faithful of the Diocese of Passau.” At that point, the Holy Father departed from his prepared remarks to invoke Our Lady, who has a famous shrine in Passau, which is a suffragan diocese of Munich and Friesing.
“You call to mind the Virgin of Altötting,” he said.
Pope Benedict XVI visited the shrine – the national shrine of the old Kingdom of Bavaria – during his 2006 trip, which also took him to Munich and Regensburg.
(from Vatican Radio)…