The Holy See: Global Borderless Sovereignty and Double-Hatted Diplomats

Abstract

In modern day diplomacy, the role of the Holy See (HS) has been characterized by conflicting perceptions. Most recently, a serious public spat occurred between The Economist and the HS in 2007 concerning the very nature of the HS as a diplomatic actor. In the conclusion of a well-researched article, the journal proposed that in an age of rising importance of various independent agencies active in the world of diplomacy, the HS would enhance its authority by clarifying its status:

Instead of claiming to practise a form of inter-governmental diplomacy, it could renounce its special diplomatic status and call itself what it is — the biggest non-governmental organisation in the world. (The Economist 2007)

The response from the HS came a few weeks later in the form of an interview by the then head of the papal diplomatic service, the French Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, with the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference Avvenire. There, he argued that suggestions such as those made in the article in The Economist,

may have arisen from an imprecise understanding of the Holy See’s position in the international community: a position that can be traced back to the beginning of the international community itself, and has been reinforced above all since the end of the nineteenth century.