British ambassador to Holy See on Queen's visit to Vatican

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ first meeting with Queen Elizabeth II marks a strong, visible symbol of the growing relationship between Britain and the Holy See. That’s according to British ambassador Nigel Baker, who was part of the delegation accompanying the Queen and Prince Philip during their brief, one day, visit to Italy and the Vatican on Thursday. While the Pontiff and the British monarch had a private conversation in a study adjacent to the Paul VI audience hall, the ambassador to the Holy See describes the encounter as a meeting of two “very wise individuals” with “a strong sense of values in terms of faith and of family”…..

Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s interview with Ambassador Nigel Baker:

“Meetings between the Queen and popes during her reign have always marked the development in terms of relationship between Britain and the Holy See. If one thinks of her first two visits in 1951, as Princess Elizabeth, and in 1961, her state visit to Pope John XXIII, both of those took place before the Second Vatican Council, a very different atmosphere between Anglicanism and Catholicism…so the fact the relationship is so strong we don’t need formalities tells you a lot about why her visits provide a context and an impulse for taking that relationship forward…

This was a meeting between two very wise individuals who have great experience of the world, a strong sense of values in term of faith, of family…..this not being a political visit, I can imagine discussion would have been focused way above the daily political concerns that a standard visit would cover…

It was striking, I thought, the choice of gifts, as you had the focus on Edward the Confessor who’s a great ecumenical figure, he’s a saint in the Anglican tradition and since the declaration of 1679….he is a saint also in the Catholic calendar……he is a symbol of the Christian monarchy, the role of the monarchy in terms of faith…..

It was also the second gift, a reflection of the orb Her Majesty carried at her coronation, but a cross inscribed to Prince George, the Queen’s great-grandson, this was a very delicate and appropriate gesture linking the past with the future….

The Archbishop of Canterbury will be here again shortly, after his first very successful and significant visit in June…..where the Pope said how the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church must walk together…..in a sense yesterday, the Queen and the Pope were walking together…

I don’t believe any formal invitations (to Britain) were extended this time…..we were honoured to receive Pope Benedict XVI on his state visit in 2010….of course we’d be delighted if Pope Francis wanted to visit Britain during his pontificate…”