Arnold Foote, President of the World Federation of Consuls (FICAC) meets with His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomeos I in Turkey last month. Several members of the Board of Directors were also on hand. His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomeos I discussed the activities of the Federation.

Your All Holiness Patriarch Bartholemew, on behalf of the Board of Directors and members of the World Federation of Consuls, I would like to say that we are humbled, honoured and deeply appreciative that you have taken time to give us audience with you this morning.

It is a great honour Your All Holiness, thank you very much.

The World Federation of Consuls was founded in 1982 by Hon. Vagn Jespersen, our Founder and First President. He served as President for 13 years and we got the sad news yesterday that he had passed on.

Could I ask you, Your Holiness, if you could
pray for him so that he may rest in peace.

Thank you very much Your All Holiness.

I would like also to thank you, on behalf of the members of our Federation, for honouring us for allowing us to honour you. We are delighted that you have agreed to accept the FICAC Gold Star, which is our highest honour, given only to distinguished world leaders.

We will communicate with you regarding a date most suitable to you for the presentation to be made.

Your Holiness, we know of your excellent reputation as a prominent environmentalist putting your full support behind various international environmental causes, which earned you the nickname of “The Green Patriarch” .

Because of this I thought you might be interested to know that our Federation has an Environment and Climate Change Committee, and we signed a Partnership Agreement with the Prince Albert Foundation in Monaco on 17th September 2010.

We would like you to know Your All Holiness that in this area of Climate Change and any other areas of activity, our services are available to you at all times.