Tim Fischer reflects on Vatican role

Tim Fischer, former National Party deputy prime minister and Australia's first residential ambassador to the Holy See, is back working as a "farmhand to wife Judy" on the family property in northern Victoria, and speaking via the modern miracle of bluetooth.

It's a long way from the spectacle and intrigue of the Byzantine world of the Vatican, where he served as ambassador from 2009 until the end of 2012.

His post was announced by Kevin Rudd as he farewelled Pope Benedict XVI from Sydney in the heady atmosphere generated by the papal presence at World Youth Day.

It was a surprise appointment, and Fischer says his own stunned reaction to a prime ministerial phone call reaching across the political divide with the job offer was first panic and then wariness. It took him a couple of days of discussion with Judy before he accepted it, but it is a decision which he has not regretted, despite the disruption to his family life it caused.

It was the need to spend more time with his family, including his autistic son Harrison (Fischer himself has a mild case of "high-functioning" autism), which led to his departure from politics. But the Vatican post meant more separation from his family, who stayed in Australia, though there were regular visits to Rome.

His daily diary helped form the basis of his workaday, anecdotal account of his time by the Tiber, Holy See, Unholy Me.

Fischer is a loyal Catholic educated by the Jesuits, as well as a discreet diplomat, and the book is no tell-all expose of goings-on at the Vatican.

However, there are some insights into its workings and the character of the enigmatic man then at its centre, Benedict XVI - a shy, warm and generous person, who hated the administrative side of his job, says Fischer.

Benedict's resignation might have taken the world by surprise, but not Fischer, who had predicted it would happen. It was a brilliant move by the pope, he says, which set a precedent for more such resignations, possibly including that of the present incumbent, the charismatic Francis.

Francis, says Fischer, is more into communication and pastoral work than the academic Benedict, and has got his reign off to a flying start.

Fischer has raised eyebrows with his view of another pope, the wartime Pius XII, derisively dismissed by detractors as "Hitler's Pope", condemned for not doing enough to save the Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust.

Fischer does not share that view, and points out that Pius acted in defence of the Jews, including ordering that convents and monasteries, as well as Vatican City, give them shelter in defiance of the nazis.

He admits that more could have been done, but claims that Pius' record is being distorted by an influential Jewish lobby centred on hardliners in New York.

Fischer's time at the Vatican coincided with the spotlight increasingly being turned on the scandal of clergy abuse of children - referred to by Benedict as the "filth in the Church and the priesthood".

Fischer's view is that though the Church has been slow to take action and without due transparency, enough senior officials are now getting the message as to the urgency of the situation and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

He does, note, however, that the Vatican's handling of the issue and other "time bombs" is hampered by its "cumbersome, top-down, high- handed leadership style" and its failure to promote the leadership of women. He also notes that an obvious solution to another time bomb, the declining numbers of priests and those in religious orders, is allowing priests to marry.

Overall, Fischer is a great supporter of the Church's influence for good and its use of "soft power" to achieve it, notably in the role of Pope John Paul II in bringing about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of communism.

He is equally enthusiastic about the role of an Australia ambassador in making use of that influence, including promoting projects such as getting a seat on the UN Security Council and the right to co-host the huge Square Kilometre Array telescope.

He is proud of his role in the highlight of his term, the canonisation ceremony of Mary MacKillop, with the arrival in Rome of thousands of Australians, including VIPs. He is also proud of getting Australia beer into the Vatican supermarket and, as a long-time train enthusiast, helping reactivate the tiny papal railway.

Holy See, Unholy Me — 1000 Days in Rome is published by ABC Books ($33).