Australia's ambassador to Holy See reviews highlights

(Vatican Radio) Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See, John McCarthy concluded his time in office on Friday, reflecting on the challenges and achievements of the past three years of service. He presented his credentials to Pope Benedict in the Vatican on November 12th 2012, just three months before the German pontiff announced his surprise resignation.

Ambassador McCarthy is a lawyer who was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great in 2006 for services to the Catholic Church and to the wider Australian community

As he took over as only the second resident Australian representative to the Holy See, the ambassador said he hoped to continue the work of his predecessor, Tim Fischer, especially in areas of peace and religious freedom, human rights and anti-trafficking.

On his last day in office, Philippa Hitchen asked him about his achievements and about how he has sought to raise the profile of his country within the Roman Curia…

Listen 

As a lawyer, Ambassador McCarthy says any achievement about his contribution must come from others, since “you can’t be a judge in your own case”. But he stresses that in a series of areas such as the campaign against human trafficking, the importance of Islam-Christian dialogue in the East or issues relating to the clerical sex abuse scandal, he has made clear Australia’s position and hopes that his submissions have had “some effect in terms of atmosphere and perhaps in policy making as well”.

The biggest challenges, he says, has been trying to put together the good will of people from different outlooks and cultures, “to take the inspiration of Pope Francis and Sr Eugenia Bonetti, for example” on the evils of human trafficking and “try to turn that into organizational association or alliance”. This is not only a challenge that he’s found, the ambassador says, but also “a big challenge in interfaith and intercultural dialogue generally”.

Asked about his passion for sports, in particular cricket, the ambassador speaks about his past experience as trustee of the Sydney cricket ground and about the establishment of the “international St Peter’s Cricket Club – the Vatican XI – in gold and white, with the red cross keys”. Through matches against teams including the Church of England XI and a Muslim team from Yorkshire, he notes that the club is now seen as “a significant symbol of interfaith and intercultural cooperation”.

Finally the ambassador speaks of a painting by “one of our finest portrait artists” Shen Jiawei, who produced the first officially commissioned portrait of Pope Francis. The portrait, which was presented to the Holy Father on behalf of the Australian people to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2014, symbolizes “a part of what Australia has been able to do”, he says.