Our second day began with a meeting at
Vatican Radio and the head of the English section – Sean Lovett. We learnt that
the Pope and Winnie-the-Pooh have something in common as they both live in an
area of 100 acres. Whether the Holy Father realises this or not is unknown...
Sean also told us that Radio Vatican broadcasts in 40 different languages and
has the biggest budget of all media sections to enable it do so. Translation is
obviously a key issue and the English section often takes the lead on stories
that are then translated into other languages and broadcast around the world.
Sean clearly loves his job and his infectious enthusiasm put us all in a good
mood as we stepped out into the sunshine and wondered up the Via della Conciliazinoe toward
the Pontifical Press Office to meet with Fr Lombardi.
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| Lucy, Stephen, Matthew, Michaela, Fr Lombardi, Marie, Dominic, Daniel and Edward |
Respectfully known by his last
name, Lombardi greeted us in a plush conference room with traditional cinema
seating and a huge papal coat-of-arms above a stage at one end of the room.
Huge plasma TV screens adorned the otherwise bare walls, reassuring us about
the Vatican’s acknowledgement of 21st century technology. Lombardi
spoke at length about his role as director of Vatican Radio, Vatican TV and the L'Osservatore Romano – the daily Vatican
newspaper. Before meeting with him we had been sceptical about the wisdom of
having one man in charge of all three media outlets but after speaking with him
we were utterly convinced of his commitment to the cause of communications.
It was then time to visit another
previous intern – Danny Howard – now working for the Human Dignity Institute.
(With a good number of past interns now in Rome, there may be hope for some of
us yet!) Danny told us about his work, lobbying different European parliaments
that are in t eh process of proposing or passing legislation which compromises
the dignity of human life as viewed by the Catholic Church.
Whether it was the ever
increasing heat or the ridiculous amount of seafood based antipasti at lunch,
no one is quite sure but the afternoon rapidly descended into surreal chaos as
we were shown around the Pontifical University of Science. Nothing could have
prepared us for the debacle I will refer to as ‘Terrapin-gate’ though. Almost
in slow motion, and as if by providence, we walked past a fountain outside the
university just as one of the two terrapins fell into the outer groove of the
fountain and became trapped on the grate where the water gushed out into a
drain! A large branch, plenty of commotion and one brave Michaela later the
terrapin soared though the sky and plopped safely back into the fountain.
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| The Terrapin |
Having calmed ourselves we headed
for the most powerful department within the Vatican – the Secretary of State.
Mgr Philip Whitmore, who previously served at the Westminster Cathedral, talked
us through his responsibilities which include speech-writing for the Pope and
replying to correspondence to the Holy Father. Mgr Whitmore then led us down a
corridor and out on to a rooftop terrace adjacent to the Papal apartments with
the most stunning views over Rome. We were all taken aback but none more so
than Daniel.
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| Interns with Mgr Whitmore on the terrace overlooking St Peter's square |
An hour later we found ourselves
on another beautiful rooftop terrace, this time with a cool glass of Prosecco
in hand, having met with the UK Ambassador to the Holy See. Nigel Baker has
been the ambassador since September and works closely with his Deputy Justin
Bedford and Ecclesiastical Advisor Mgr Charley Burns, both of whom also met
with us at the ambassador’s apartment. All those featured on our itinerary had
been invited to dinner which was eaten back downstairs and followed by a great
opportunity to chat informally to an eclectic mix of people.
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