Lord Patten appointed to oversee Vatican communications
Lord Patten has been appointed to oversee Vatican Communications, it was announced today, Wednesday 9 July, by the head of the Vaticn's Secretariat for the Economy, Cardinal George Pell.
A former Chairman of the BBC Trust and current Chancellor of Oxford University, Christopher Francis Patten is a British Conservative politician and administrator who served as the last Governor of Hong Kong prior to the handover to Chinese rule.
Patten was Member of Parliament for Bath, before becoming a cabinet minister and party chairman. He accepted the post of Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Hong Kong, and oversaw its handover to the People's Republic of China in July 1997.
From 1999 to 2004 he served as one of the United Kingdom's two members of the European Commission. After leaving that post, he returned to the UK to become Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2003, and he was made a Life Peer in 2005.
Lord Patten is a Catholic and oversaw Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom in September 2010. From April 2011 to May 2014 he served as Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
During his most recent visit to the Vatican in February this year, he was part of the British government delegation to the Consistory where Archbishop Vincent Nichols was raised to the rank of cardinal.
To hear an interview with Lord Patten on Vatican Radio click here: www.news.va/en/news/lord-patten-appointed-to-oversee-vatican-communica