It was something of a mystery why Archbishop Antonio Mennini was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain in 2010. Why did Rome deploy one of its finest troubleshooters to a relatively small and stable Catholic outpost?
Archbishop Mennini arrived with an impressive pedigree. He belonged to an old Roman family and his father had served as managing director of the Vatican bank. As a young priest he was an intermediary during the kidnapping of Italian prime minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades.
The archbishop had displayed formidable diplomatic skills in his previous posting to Russia. He arrived there shortly after St John Paul II created Catholic dioceses across the country. This act outraged the Russian Orthodox Church, which regards the land stretching from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok as its “canonical territory”.
Relations between Rome and Moscow were frozen like Arctic tundra. But in less than a decade, Archbishop Mennini achieved a thaw. He won over the Orthodox hierarchy through patient listening and paved the way for full diplomatic relations between the Kremlin and the Holy See.
Why then did Benedict XVI send such a distinguished figure to Britain? The most popular theory was that he wanted Archbishop Mennini to strengthen ties with the Church of England, which were strained in the wake of Anglicanorum Coetibus, which permitted groups of Anglicans to be received into the Catholic Church while retaining elements of their patrimony.
Perhaps the German pope also felt that his visit to Britain had uncovered unexpected common ground between Rome and Whitehall, and that he needed a seasoned diplomat to explore it.
Benedict XVI probably also realised that, with a number of senior bishops reaching retirement age, he and Archbishop Mennini had an opportunity to reshape the hierarchy of England, Wales and Scotland.
On all these counts, the archbishop’s time here must be judged a success. He helped both to nurture the ordinariate and to allay misgivings among Anglican (and indeed Catholic) bishops. With his guidance, the Holy See and the British government cooperated in unprecedented ways to combat the evil of human trafficking.
He oversaw a series of inspired episcopal appointments, including those of Archbishop Leo Cushley, Archbishop Malcolm McMahon and Archbishop George Stack, to name just a few. Mennini bishops did not come from a single point on the ecclesiastical spectrum or have a single personality type. What they had in common was an energetic sense of mission: a belief that the British people are hungry for the Good News preached by the Church that Christ founded.
Archbishop Mennini sensed this hunger shortly after he arrived in Britain. In a rare interview, he said: “I can imagine, as happens everywhere, that many people are looking, in search of something, possibly they don’t know what. They are looking for a truth, not a lie. Why not listen to them, to help them, to verify whether we are able to help them, to work together in order to achieve more advances, more spiritual goals, which also means better lives for everyone.” He travelled the length and breadth of Britain putting this into practice. Despite his rarefied position, he remained a friendly, charming and approachable figure.
Five years after he presented his credentials to the Queen, Archbishop Mennini faces a daunting new task. The 69-year-old will serve in the Vatican Secretariat of State, with particular reference to the state of Italy. We wish him well and thank him for his fruitful time here. Our loss is Rome’s gain.
A priest against the odds
The relationship between the Catholic Church and the People’s Republic of China seems to be warming up. Though no official diplomatic relations exist, there are regular meetings between representatives of the Vatican and Beijing. In an interview with El País, in the midst of many other topics, the Pope mentioned that “there is a committee that has been working for years with China, they meet every three months, once here and once in Beijing. There are many talks with China.” He also mentioned a cultural front to this rapprochement: “Two or three months ago they had an exhibition of pieces from the Vatican Museums in Beijing, and they were very happy about it. And next year they will come to the Vatican with their own exhibits.”
The Pope said that he would visit China “as soon as they send me an invitation. They know that.” This seems surprising, given that the establishment of all the diplomatic protocols could take years. But Nixon did go to China to see Chairman Mao, and a visit by the Pope could signify another such dramatic moment. Pope Francis noted: “Besides, in China, the churches are packed. In China they can worship freely.” In this his optimism seems to outrun the facts. There is no freedom of religion in China, though, of course, people do attend churches in large numbers. But these churches are all subjected to government interference and supervision, and there are many Christians languishing in China’s jails for their beliefs. Let’s hope that the Vatican will never forget them.
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