Axworthy’s days are packed with meetings, speeches, and events, so she usually visits the churches either before or after work.
“Although it is becoming a bit of an obsession, I try not to let it interfere too much with my working days,” she said.
“Luckily in Rome, there hasn’t been too much rain, so it makes for a lovely walk every morning or evening to go see a different church,” she added.
Axworthy has also shared much of her Roman Station Church experience on social media, posting photos and facts about the church of each particular day.
Axworthy said: “I have found as ambassador that my social media followers are very interested in everything about life in Rome. And often if I tweet about a work meeting that they are obviously not so excited about that, but they do like to hear about what goes on in the Vatican and the life of the Holy See, really.”
“I know in the U.K. … people are suffering lockdown, so they are not allowed to go out very much, and so I thought, well, this is something that I can do. I can share what I’ve been doing with the station churches and hopefully, that will provide a little glimmer of hope every day or something of interest when people are really suffering some quite difficult circumstances.”
While the latest round of coronavirus restrictions in Rome, introduced on March 15, has forced Axworthy to suspend some of her station church visits on their designated day, she plans to visit the churches that she missed as soon as Rome’s “red-zone” restrictions have lifted.
She will end her term as the British ambassador to the Holy See later this year after five years of service in Rome.
Looking back, Axworthy said that one significant occasion for her was St. John Henry Newman’s canonization.
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“In our bilateral relationship, the highlight was the canonization of St. John Henry Newman, which was a kind of remarkable moment,” she said.
“It was the first British saint for 40 years. We hadn’t had a canonization for a very long time. Newman’s a figure who spent half his life as an Anglican and half of it as a Catholic -- so he is very much a bridge for the two traditions, and for me personally it meant getting to know some of this writings.”
“I read a lot about him, and he is a very inspirational figure, so just learning about Newman, but also the celebrations themselves. The Prince of Wales came and he made a very powerful speech, so that was a great highlight in our bilateral relationship.”
Before entering the diplomatic service, Axworthy studied modern history at Oxford University, in the city where Newman taught before his conversion to Catholicism.
“I think Rome is famous for the Roman Empire and for the Renaissance, but this bit -- the history of early Christianity -- is really worth exploring too,” she said.