Do you think the different conceptions of church/state relations between European countries make collaboration between European governments on religious issues more difficult precisely because all these issues inform the political culture?

## Francis Campbell

Let me take - three very easy questions! The first one: what would I like the Pope to say? It will be a matter for the Pope to decide what he says in this country! In terms of that dynamic I have to worry more about what our representatives say in the context of the Papal visit but that is perhaps too minimalist a response. You look for areas of collaboration: my focus will be on the foreign policy side. I think that we would hope to see that both sides will want to reinforce the very positive international relationship that is there. I am very conscious that this is a minority Catholic country; I'm also very conscious that a lot of those other 177 states that have diplomatic relations with the Holy See watch our relationship. They watch the exchange of prime ministerial visits, of cabinet minister visits and they watch it intensely. It's not a sentimental relationship: it's focused on UK foreign policy interests. If you look at our strategic priorities, our Embassy in the Holy See is not some offshoot, it is central there to a lot of our key foreign policy objectives. So I hope that that state-to-state thing comes out because I think that will say something about the positive approach between the Holy See and the United Kingdom and how far relations have come. I'm very conscious of the historical baggage that this relationship has had in previous centuries. We're in a very different place now. But even on a domestic front I think something like Catholic social teaching is a potential reservoir for people to look into. You know if you examine subsidiarity - it's already of use in the European Union - and if you're looking at issues about the role of government, the relationship between government and society and the very role of society, then something like subsidiarity and the whole Catholic federalist political thought is potentially something that the Pope could bring to the debate. But there will also be speeches here and hopefully there will be an interaction: that's what happens on other state visits or official visits and I am sure it will happen in this case as well. In relation to Gaza - the Foreign Secretary has outlined the government's position in relation to the Middle East peace process. I'm not going to repeat that but I am going to take up your very last question, the last sentence about the role of religions here - can they do more in the Middle East peace process. Actually I think you can ask religious communities in this country do to more. Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop's House sends a delegation off every January to the Holy Land, with a lot of other re ligious groupings together, and it's a joint Anglican, Roman Catholic, I think the Methodists are included as well - to really highlight the efforts that religious groups are doing in the Holy Land and to show solidarity with the different faith groups in the Holy Land to try to have an impact on the peace process particularly at the grass roots level. And when they come home they don't ignore what they've been doing over there but they bring the message back and they keep the process going throughout the months of January to the following January. In