It was something of a mystery why Archbishop Antonio Mennini was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain in 2010. Why did Rome deploy one of its finest troubleshooters to a relatively small and stable Catholic outpost?
Archbishop Mennini arrived with an impressive pedigree. He belonged to an old Roman family and his father had served as managing director of the Vatican bank. As a young priest he was an intermediary during the kidnapping of Italian prime minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades.
