Scottish Catholic Observer

Francis Campbell was the first Catholic to be the United Kingdom’s representative at the Vatican, serving in the role from 2005-2011.

He told an audience at the University of Glasgow that despite the challenges there had ‘never been a better time in UK society to be Catholic and engaging in public life.’

He cautioned however that it was ‘necessary for people who profess a Faith to speak out, because there are elements in society that want to push Faith to the very margins, where it should be neither seen or heard.’

“Often the image of religion in popular culture is not one I recognise,” he said.

“If the Church were as it is often depicted few of us would be part of it. But the Church I belong to and was raised in is very different to the characterisation one often finds.”

Mr Campbell told the SCO that young Catholics to have confidence in what they believed. “People will admire your conviction,” he said.

“If Western pluralist democracy is to survive it requires people who think differently. There at present seems to be a drive to uniformity, a drive for everyone to think the same way, and this needs to be challenged.”

Mr Campbell, who was born and raised in Northern Ireland, said that Catholics should not retreat from public life.

“We need to talk about the huge amount of good the Church does in the world,” he said.

“It changed my life. I would not be where I am today without the church’s participation in education. That’s true of many, many people.”

A former private secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr Campbell left the civil service in 2014 to take on the role of vice-rector of St Mary’s University in London.

He said that his time at the Vatican had left him in awe of the scale of the Church’s works in the world.

“The Church is the second largest provider of international development in the world, after the UN,” he said.

“The sheer number of hospitals and schools across the world that the Church provides is incredible.”

Saying he had hugely enjoyed his time at the Vatican, he did add he had not been sorry to leave.

“I had a professional job to do in monitoring what the Holy See is doing but I also had a personal Faith,” he said.

“And I had reached the point I wanted that personal thing back. I wanted to listen to a sermon without having my professional hat on.”

He said he did not miss life at the centre of foreign affairs, though he mused that ‘diplomacy is now needed more than ever,’ and he added that he was very proud of his work at St Mary’s, a Catholic university in England.

“We have a distinctive mission and a unique Catholic identity but are open to all,” he said.

“Our religion doesn’t close us off—it provides an opening for staff and student to engage.”

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This story ran in full in the March 10 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.