Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T18:49:25.189Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The pope’s man in London: Anglo-Vatican relations, the nuncio question and Irish concerns, 1938-82

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2020

Daithí Ó Corráin*
Affiliation:
School of History and Geography, St Patrick’s Campus, Dublin City University, Drumcondra, Dublin9, Republic of Ireland. Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Although a British mission to the Holy See was established in 1914, the diplomatic relationship was not on a basis of reciprocity. From 1938 the pope was represented in London not by a nuncio (the Vatican equivalent of an ambassador) but by an apostolic delegate whose mission was to the hierarchy alone and not the British government. The evolution of the nuncio question sheds light on the nature of Anglo-Vatican relations, the place of Catholicism in British public life, inter-church rapprochement and British foreign policy considerations. This article assesses the divergent positions of the Foreign and Home Offices. The former was sympathetic to a change of status, whereas the latter was cautious due to the opposition of the archbishop of Canterbury and concerns about anti-Catholicism. The nuncio question was also of great interest to the Irish government. It feared that a nuncio in London would exert jurisdiction over Northern Ireland and undermine the all-island unity of the Irish Catholic Church. The Northern Ireland Troubles and the support displayed by the apostolic delegate for British policy hastened the restoration of full ambassadorial relations between London and the Holy See in 1982, ending a diplomatic breach that had existed for more than four centuries. It paved the way for Pope John Paul II’s historic pastoral visit to Britain which helped to consolidate the position of Roman Catholicism in British national life.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Trustees of the Catholic Record Society 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I am grateful to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Dublin City University (DCU) for funding research in The National Archives, London for this article.

References

1 Peter Scarlett (Holy See) to Michael Stewart (Foreign Office), 15 April 1965, Foreign Office (hereafter FO) 371/183258, The National Archives, London (hereafter TNA).

2 For an overview of Irish foreign policy, see Kennedy, Michael, ‘Irish Foreign Policy: 1919 to 1973’ in Bartlett, Thomas, ed. The Cambridge History of Ireland: Volume IV 1880 to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 604–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; on relations between Ireland and the Vatican, see Keogh, Dermot, Ireland and the Vatican: The Politics and Diplomacy of Church-State Relations (Cork: Cork University Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

3 On this see Fletcher, Stella, The Popes and Britain: A History of Rule, Rupture and Reconciliation (London: IB Tauris, 2017), 164–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Despatch to Sir Henry Howard containing instructions respecting his mission to the Vatican (London: Stationery Office, 1915), Cd. 7736.

5 Parliamentary Debates (Hansard, fifth series), House of Commons, 206, cols 360-1, 11 May 1927 (London: H.M.S.O, 1927).

6 Russell to Chamberlain, 30 May 1926, General correspondence, 1926 A-Y, Austen Chamberlain papers, University of Birmingham.

7 Moloney, Thomas, Westminster, Whitehall and the Vatican: The Role of Cardinal Hinsley, 1935-43 (Tunbridge Wells: Burns & Oates, 1985), 87Google Scholar.

8 Ibid., 89.

9 Osborne to Lord Halifax, 13 May 1938, FO 371/22433, TNA.

10 Osborne to Eden, 4 January 1938, ibid.

11 Osborne to Philip Nichols (FO), 22 March 1938, ibid.

12 Minute on Vatican representative, 12 May 1938, ibid.

13 Minute of conversation between William Godfrey and E.M.B. Ingram, 20 May 1938, ibid.

14 ‘Private and confidential’ Ingram to Godfrey, 14 June 1938, ibid.

15 Minute by Stephen Gaselee, 7 June 1938, ibid.

16 Eugenio Pacelli to Osborne, 14 July 1938, ibid.

17 Osborne to Ingram, 12 July 1938, ibid.

18 Minute by Gaselee, 13 September 1938, ibid.

19 Osborne to Ingram, 19 October 1938, ibid.

20 Larsen, Chris, Catholic Bishops of Great Britain: A Reference to Roman Catholic Bishops from 1850 to 2015 (Durham: Sacristy Press, 2016), 33Google Scholar.

21 Michael Gaine, ‘Godfrey, William (1889-1963)’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn September 2004 [https://doi-org.dcu.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33431. Accessed 11 October 2019].

22 Aspden, Kester, Fortress Church: The English Roman Catholic Bishops and Politics, 1903-63 (Leominster: Gracewing, 2002), 272Google Scholar.

23 Bliss, Frederick, Anglicans in Rome: A History (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2006), 1819Google Scholar; see also Chadwick, Owen, Britain and the Vatican during the Second World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Moloney, Westminster.

24 Daithí, Ó Corráin, Rendering to God and Caesar: The Irish Churches and the Two States in Ireland, 1949-73 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006), 2Google Scholar.

25 Edward, N. Peters (curator), The 1917 or Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law: In English Translation (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001), 114Google Scholar.

26 ‘Appointment of Papal Nuncio in Ireland (Monsignor Paschal Robinson), 1929’, Department of Foreign Affairs (hereafter DFA) /5/318/77, National Archives of Ireland, Dublin (hereafter NAI).

27 In March 1971 the title of this department was changed to Foreign Affairs.

28 Secret report from Walsh to secretary Department of External Affairs (hereafter DEA), 13 November 1948, DFA/10/2/22, NAI.

29 N. J. A. Cheetham (FO) to Sir Walter Roberts (Holy See), 20 May 1952, Home Office (hereafter HO) 304/12, TNA. Roberts (1893-1978) was minister to the Holy See from 1951 until 1953.

30 H. A. Strutt (HO) to Cheetham, 13 June 1952, HO 304/12, TNA.

31 For example, Daily Telegraph, 8 January 1954.

32 ‘Catholic Union of Great Britain: Its Objects and Work’ (1928), 2-3, 2/145a, William Godfrey papers, Westminster Diocesan Archives, London (hereafter WDA).

33 J.R. Colville to duke of Norfolk, 6 January 1954, FO 371/113150, TNA.

34 Sengers, Erik, ‘“Although We Are Catholic, We Are Dutch”: The Transition of the Dutch Catholic Church from Sect to Church as an Explanation of its Growth and Decline’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 43:1 (2004): 134CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lucardie, Paul & ten Napel, Hans-Martien, ‘Between Confessionalism and Liberal Conservatism: The Christian Democratic Parties of Belgium and the Netherlands’ in Hanley, David ed. Christian Democracy in Europe: A Comparative Perspective (London: Pinter, 1994), 5170Google Scholar.

35 Minute by Kirkpatrick, 15 January 1954, FO 371/113150, TNA.

36 Confidential memorandum ‘Status of the Vatican representative’, 10 May 1954, FO 371/113150, TNA.

37 Carpenter, Edward, Archbishop Fisher: His Life and Times (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 1991), 347–8Google Scholar.

38 Confidential record of conversation between C. W. Harrison and the private secretary to the archbishop of Canterbury, 12 February 1954, FO 371/113150, TNA.

39 Confidential report from Howard (Holy See) to FO, 15 May 1954, ibid. Howard succeeded Sir Walter Roberts and was the British minister to the Holy See from 1954 until 1957.

40 Cypher from Eden (Geneva) to FO, 19 May 1954, FO 371/113150, TNA.

41 Memorandum by Joseph Walshe, 15 December 1953, DFA 313/6A, NAI.

42 Secret report from Cremin to Liam Cosgrave (Minister for External Affairs), 6 November 1954, DFA 14/21/1, NAI.

44 Confidential minute by J. G. Ward on status of the Vatican representative in the UK, 17 June 1955, FO 371/118006, TNA.

45 Salisbury to Macmillan, 6 December 1955, ibid.

46 Selwyn Lloyd to Salisbury, 2 January 1956, ibid.

47 Daily Telegraph, 28 January 1957; The Times, 29 May 1957.

48 Confidential report from Leo McCauley (Irish ambassador to the Holy See) to Seán Murphy (secretary DEA), 24 June 1957, DFA/10/2/308, NAI.

49 F. H. Boland (Irish ambassador in London) to Murphy, 15 February 1956, DFA/10/2/308, NAI.

50 Confidential report from Boland to Murphy, 28 January 1956, ibid.

52 Liam Cosgrave to Con Cremin (Irish ambassador to the Holy See), 1 February 1956, DFA/10/2/308, NAI.

53 Confidential report from Cremin to Cosgrave, 18 February 1956, ibid.

54 Irish Independent, 12 March 1956. W.T. Cosgrave was head of the first government of independent Ireland between 1922 and 1932 and was a devout Catholic.

55 Secret report by Cremin on diplomatic representation of the Holy See in London, 20 March 1956, DFA/10/2/308, NAI.

56 The literature on Scotland is extensive: for example, Bruce, Steve, Glendinning, Tony, Paterson, Iain and Rosie, Michael, Sectarianism in Scotland (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004)Google Scholar; Gallagher, Tom, Divided Scotland: Ethnic Friction and Christian Crisis (Glendaruel: Argyll Publishing, 2013)Google Scholar. Anti-Catholicism in Wales was more a nineteenth-century phenomenon, see O’Leary, Paul, ‘When was Anti-Catholicism? The Case of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Wales’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 56:2 (2005): 308–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Parsons, Gerald, ‘Contrasts and Continuities: The Traditional Christian Churches in Britain since 1945’ in Parsons, Gerald, ed. The Growth of Religious Diversity: Britain from 1945. Volume 1 Traditions (London: Routledge, 1993), 33Google Scholar. Catholicism in Wales in the twentieth century is less well studied, see Hughes, Trystan Owain, Winds of Change: The Roman Catholic Church and Society in Wales, 1916-1962 (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1999)Google Scholar. For some useful comments on the increase in the Catholic population in Wales, see Densil Morgan, D., The Span of the Cross: Christian Religion and Society in Wales, 1914-2000 (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011)Google Scholar.

58 Elliott, Kit, ‘“A Very Pushy Kind of Folk”: Educational Reform 1944 and the Catholic Laity of England and Wales’, History of Education 35:1 (2006): 119CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Catholic Directory 1939 (London: Burns and Oates): 657; Catholic Directory 1959: 701; Hastings, Adrian, A History of English Christianity 1920-1990 (3rd edn., London: SCM Press, 1991), 561Google Scholar.

60 Godfrey to O’Hara, 12 December 1957, 2/128, Godfrey papers, WDA.

61 Brown, Callum, Religion and Society in Scotland since 1707 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997), 159Google Scholar. For an overview of the fortunes of the Catholic community in Scotland see Maver, Irene, ‘The Catholic Community’ in Devine, T. M. & Finlay, R. J., eds. Scotland in the Twentieth Century (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), 269–82Google Scholar.

62 This has been the subject of considerable debate among historians and sociologists. For a thorough overview see Harris, Alana, Faith in the Family: A Lived Religious History of English Catholicism, 1945-82 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), 3256CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 Aspden, Fortress Church, 279.

64 Confidential note of conversation between Con Cremin and Restieaux, 1 February 1957, DFA/10/2/308, NAI.

65 Norfolk to Macmillan, 1 November 1958; minute by R.A.B. Butler, 21 November 1958, HO 304/16, TNA.

66 Minute by Macmillan, 16 January 1959, HO 304/16, TNA.

67 Memorandum on representation of the Vatican in the United Kingdom, 23 February 1960, HO 304/16, TNA.

68 Field, Clive D., ‘No Popery’s Ghost: Does Popular Anti-Catholicism Survive in Contemporary Britain?’, Journal of Religion in Europe 7 (2014): 119CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

69 Ibid., 120.

70 Werner, Yvonne Maria, ‘“The Catholic Danger”: The Changing Patterns of Swedish Anti-Catholicism – 1850-1965’, European Studies 31 (2013): 141Google Scholar.

71 See Hebblethwaite, Peter, John XXIII: Pope of the Council (London: Chapman, 1984), 317–20Google Scholar.

72 Willebrands to Godfrey, 7 November 1960, 2/86, Godfrey papers, WDA.

73 Minute by home secretary for prime minister, 31 August 1960; confidential minute from prime minister to home secretary, 3 September 1960, HO 304/11, TNA. On disagreement between Fisher and Macmillan, see Anderson, John, ‘The Tory Party at Prayer? The Church of England and British Politics in the 1950s’, Journal of Church and State 58:3 (2016): 423–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar

74 Bliss, Anglicans in Rome, 47.

75 Fisher’s emphasis; confidential letter from Fisher to Queen Elizabeth, 18 October 1960, PREM 11/4594, TNA.

76 Godfrey to O’Hara, 14 November 1960, enclosing 7-page ‘Memorandum on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s visit to the Holy Father’, 2/86, Godfrey papers, WDA.

77 Secret report by Hugh McCann to secretary DEA, 29 December 1960, DFA/10/2/308, NAI.

78 Bea to Archbishop Michael Ramsey, 19 June 1962, vol. 26, folios 151-2, Ramsey papers, Lambeth Palace Library, London. The observers were led by John Moorman, bishop of Ripon, who later published Vatican observed: An Anglican impression of Vatican II (Darton, Longman & Todd, 1967) and ‘Observers and Guests of the Council’ in Stacpoole, Alberic, ed. Vatican II by those who were there (London: Chapman, 1986), 155–69Google Scholar.

79 Secret report from McCann to secretary DEA, 10 October 1961, DFA/10/2/309, NAI.

80 Wolffe, John, ‘Protestant-Catholic Divisions in Europe and the United States: An Historical and Comparative Perspective’, Politics, Religion & Ideology, 12:3 (2011): 253CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Wolffe, John, ‘Contentious Christians: Protestant-Catholic Conflict since the Reformation’ in Wolffe, John, ed. Religion in History: Conflict, Conversion and Coexistence (Manchester: The Open University, 2004), 97128Google Scholar.

81 Parsons, Gerald, ‘How the Times They were A-Changing: Exploring the Context of Religious Transformation in Britain in the 1960s’ in Wolffe, John, ed. Religion in History, 164Google Scholar.

82 Hastings, English Christianity, 564; Webster, Peter, Archbishop Ramsey: The Shape of the Church (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), 33Google Scholar.

83 Chadwick, Owen, Michael Ramsey: A Life (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), 314Google Scholar.

84 Minute by Burke Trend on representation of the Vatican, 13 March 1963, HO 304/16, TNA; Ramsey to Macmillan, 15 March 1963, vol. 46, folio 192, Ramsey papers, London, Lambeth Palace Library; Webster, Archbishop Ramsey, 34-5.

85 Confidential report from Leo McCauley (Holy See) to secretary DEA, 15 December 1960, DFA/10/2/308, NAI.

86 Confidential minute from Lord Privy Seal to prime minister, 2 October 1963; De Zulueta to prime minister, 3 October 1963, PREM 11/4167, TNA.

87 Confidential report from Cremin (London) to secretary DEA, 31 January 1964, DFA/10/2/309, NAI.

88 Personal and confidential Cremin to secretary DEA, 4 February 1964, ibid.

89 Hebblethwaite’s, PeterPaul VI: The First Modern Pope (London: Harper Collins, 1993)Google Scholar remains the best treatment of Paul VI.

90 Thomas Commins (Holy See) to Hugh McCann (secretary DEA), 21 March 1966, DFA/10/2/309, NAI.

91 Tablet, 16 April 1966, 443-4.

92 ‘Highly confidential’ report from Commins to McCann, 7 May 1966, DFA/10/2/23, NAI.

93 Bliss, Anglicans in Rome, 32-6.

94 See, for example, Hansard 5 (Commons), 725, no. 52 col. 29 (21 February 1966); 732, no. 56 cols 20-1 (18 July 1966).

95 Catholic Union of Great Britain Council Meeting, 6 July 1965, HE1/C10a, John Heenan papers, WDA.

96 Catholic Union of Great Britain AGM, 4 November 1965, ibid.

97 Stewart to Wilson, 26 March 1965; memorandum by Stewart, 31 March 1965, PREM 13/1911, TNA.

98 Frank Soskice to Wilson, 12 April 1965; Ramsey to Wilson, 18 June 1965, ibid.

99 Confidential minute on ‘Relations with the Vatican’, 1965, PREM 13/1911, TNA.

100 For an overview of the historiography of religious decline since the 1960s and the secularization thesis, see Parsons, ‘How the Times’, 161-89; Clive, D. Field, ‘Another Window on British Secularization: Public Attitudes to Church and Clergy since the 1960s’, Contemporary British History, 28:2 (2014): 190218Google Scholar.

101 For an overview of British policy, see Cunningham, Michael, British Government Policy in Northern Ireland, 1969-2000 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001)Google Scholar; Dixon, Paul, Northern Ireland: The Politics of War and Peace (2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Aveyard, S.C., No Solution: The Labour Government and the Northern Ireland Conflict, 1974-79 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016)Google Scholar.

102 Larsen, Catholic Bishops, 37.

103 Heenan to Archbishop Giovanni Benelli (secretariat of state), 17 July 1973, HE1/A5c, Heenan papers, WDA.

104 Seán Donlon (assistant secretary DFA) to Gerald Woods (Holy See), 17 June 1975, DFA/2009/22/28, NAI.

105 Crossley to David Goodall (Foreign and Commonwealth Office hereafter FCO), 11 December 1978, CJ 4/4530, TNA.

106 Fletcher, Pope and Britain, 184-5; Longley, Clifford, The Worlock Archive (London: Chapman, 2000), 210–11Google Scholar.

107 Clifford Longley, ‘Hume, George Haliburton [name in religion Basil Hume] (1923-1999)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn September 2004 [https://doi-org.dcu.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/72406. Accessed 11 October 2019].

108 Irish Times, 12 July 2003.

109 ‘Personal & confidential’ report of conversation between Ambassador David Donoghue and Audrys Backis (council for the public affairs of the Church) on 1 December 1977, DFA/2009/22/26, NAI. On the appointment of Ó Fiaich, see Keogh, Ireland and the Vatican, 364; Rafferty, Oliver P., ‘The British Government and the Appointment of Tomás Ó Fiaich as Archbishop of Armagh, Seanchas Ard Mhaca, 25 (2014): 2762Google Scholar.

110 Minute by W. R. Haydon (British ambassador to Republic), 11 May 1977; John Hickman (British embassy Dublin) to Philip Mallet (FCO), 19 May 1977, CJ 4/1546, TNA.

111 FitzGerald, Garret, All in a Life: An Autobiography (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1991), 189Google Scholar.

112 Draft brief for secretary of state on primate of all Ireland, 24 May 1977, CJ 4/1546, TNA.

113 Brief for secretary of state’s meeting with Cardinal Hume on 6 July 1977, ibid.

114 Confidential note of a meeting between the secretary of state and Cardinal Hume and the Apostolic Delegate, Northern Ireland Office, London, 6 July 1977, ibid.

115 Gerard Woods (Irish ambassador) to Seán Donlon (assistant secretary DFA), 26 and 27 September 1977, DFA/2009/22/29, NAI; Callaghan, James, Time and Chance (London: Collins, 1987), 500Google Scholar.

116 Minute by J.A. Marshall, 28 February 1978, CJ 4/3837, TNA.

117 Draft of Crossley’s credentials speech; text of presented credentials speech, 13 January 1978, FCO 33/3791, TNA.

118 Crossley to David Owen (foreign secretary), 18 January 1978, ibid.

119 Minute by A.G.L. Turner (Overseas Information Department), 26 March 1979, FCO 33/4260, TNA.

120 Note of a meeting between the secretary of state and the Apostolic Delegate on 15 February 1978, FCO 33/3791, TNA.

121 Haydon (Dublin) to FCO, 1 August 1978, FCO 97/827, TNA; Irish Times, 2 August 1978.

122 Mason, Roy, Paying the Price (London: Robert Hale, 1999), 210–11Google Scholar.

123 John Campbell (Irish ambassador to the UK) to Seán Donlon, 8 August 1978, DFA/2014/33/8, NAI.

124 J. G. Pilling (private secretary to secretary of state) to Dennis Pehrson (press secretary apostolic delegation), 6 December 1978; Pehrson to Pilling, 21 December 1978, CJ 4/4530, TNA.

125 Irish Independent, 29 November 1978; Sunday Press, 3 December 1978.

126 Irish Times, 8 December 1978; Guardian, 6 December 1978.

127 Crossley to David Goodall (FCO), 11 December 1978, CJ 4/4530, TNA.

128 Crossley to FCO, 15 January 1979, FCO 33/4251, TNA.

129 Crossley to Goodall, 11 December 1978, CJ 4/4530, TNA.

130 M.A. Cafferty (British legation to the Holy See) to David G. Blunt (Republic of Ireland Department FCO), 13 December 1978, FCO 33/4251, TNA.

131 Minute for minister of foreign affairs, 27 March 1979; Report from John Molloy (Irish ambassador to Holy See), 17 March 1979, DFA/2012/58/3, NAI.

132 Irish Independent, 9 May 1979.

133 Molyneaux to Atkins, 26 July 1979, CJ 4/3837, TNA.

134 J. G. Pilling to Bryan Cartledge (private secretary to the prime minister), 24 August 1979, FCO 33/4252, TNA.

135 Crossley to FCO, 27 July 1979, FCO 33/4251, TNA.

136 Crossley to FCO, 25 August 1979, FCO 33/4252, TNA.

137 Crossley to FCO, 24 August 1979, ibid.

138 Crossley to FCO, 25 August 1979, ibid.

139 Note of meeting between the Secretary of State and the Apostolic Delegate at NIO London on 4 September 1979, FCO 33/4249, TNA.

140 Ibid.

141 Carrington to Crossley, 10 September 1979, FCO 33/4249, TNA; on Jenkins see Piers Ludlow, N., Roy Jenkins and the European Commission Presidency, 1976-1980 (London: Palgrave, 2016)Google Scholar.

142 Jenkins, Roy, European Diary, 1977-1981 (London: Collins, 1989), 499Google Scholar; UK representative in Brussels to FCO, 13 September 1979, PREM 19/128 TNA.

143 Carrington to Crossley, 24 September 1979, FCO 33/4252, TNA.

144 Carrington to Crossley, 27 September 1979, PREM 19/128, TNA.

145 An exception was Conor Cruise O’Brien in the Observer, 30 September 1979.

146 Statement, 1 October 1979, PREM 19/128, TNA.

147 J. H. Callan (Crossley’s deputy) to S. Hilton (FCO), 15 October 1979, FCO 33/4252, TNA.

148 The Times, 13 November 1979.

149 Éamon Kennedy (Irish ambassador to the UK) to secretary DFA, 24 December 1979, DFA/2014/33/8, NAI.

150 Confidential minute by Carrington to prime minister, 27 October 1980, CJ 4/3837, TNA.

151 Atkins to Carrington, [?] July 1980, FCO 33/4536, TNA.

152 ‘Obituary of The Most Reverend Bruno Heim’, Daily Telegraph, 24 March 2003.

153 Report of a conversation with Monsignor Giovanni Tonucci of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church, 1 December 1981, DFA/2014/33/8, NAI.

154 Irish Press, 20 October 1980.

155 On the papal visit see Pepinster, Catherine, The Keys and the Kingdom: The British and the Papacy from John Paul II to Francis (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), 2936Google Scholar.

156 Coffey to Andrew O’Rourke (secretary DFA), 19 May 1981 with copy of Aide-Mémoire, DFA/2014/33/8, NAI.

157 Secret minute on diplomatic relations between Britain and the Holy See, 12 January 1982, ibid.

158 Coffey to David Neligan (assistant secretary DFA), 18 Jan 1982 enclosing note of interview with Monsignor Achille Silvestrini on 15 January 1982, ibid.

159 Magee was ordained for St Patrick’s Society for the Foreign Missions and was one of Paul VI’s two private secretaries. He retained this position under John Paul I and John Paul II until 1982 when he became master of pontifical ceremonies.

160 Vatican Press Release, 16 January 1982, DFA/2014/33/8, NAI.

161 Peter Stanford, ‘The Most Rev Bruno Heim: Indiscreet Catholic Diplomat Who Enjoyed Repairing the Reformation Rift’, Guardian, 25 March 2003.

162 Longley, ‘Hume’

163 Hornsby-Smith, Michael P., Roman Catholics in England: Studies in Social Structure since the Second World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

164 Fletcher, The Popes and Britain, 600.

165 Ibid., 601.

166 Éamon Kennedy to secretary DFA, 7 June 1982, DFA/2016/22/2017, NAI.

167 Brown, Religion and Society, 196.

168 ‘A Man for Our Seasons’, The Times, 3 June 1982.