By A.M. Kelley
Superior Catholic Herald
Glenwood City native serves Vatican mission to United Nations
SUPERIOR -- Luke Swanepoel believes that people the world over are looking for ways to identify with each other, and amid all the differences it's his job to help bridge the divides.
This Wisconsin man is the legal attache to Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the apostolic nuncio to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York City.
The "mission" is analogous to a U.N. embassy with Migliore as its ambassador and Swanepoel his legal advisor. Together with the others on the small mission staff, they cover a broad number of issues affecting international peace and the economic and social wellbeing of the world's citizens.
"It's a far cry from a farm in Glenwood," Swanepoel said during a phone interview with the Catholic Herald in March.
The 27-year-old is the son of Diane and Robert Swanepoel, lifelong members of St. John the Baptist Parish in Glenwood City. He'll turn 28 on April 16, a birthday he shares with Pope Benedict XVI, whom he will lunch with during the pope's upcoming visit to the United Nations.
While the pope's security and itinerary is managed by Rome and the Archdiocese of New York, Swanepoel expects the U.N. visit to be "quite an interesting couple of days," he said.
Of course, for this three-year veteran of the mission, "interesting" is part of the job description.
"I've been within 10 feet of every head of state in the world," Swanepoel said. "You get to meet and see and interact with very high level people regularly."
As intimidating as this could be, Swanepoel said it has not made him feel small or insignificant. Rubbing elbows with world leaders makes him see how interconnected we all are regardless of who we are or where we live.
"When you interact with a person on the human level you get a sense of the individual," he said.
Routinely receiving and lunching with visiting cardinals, he enjoys lengthy one-on-one conversations with them--after getting over initial jitters.
"They're really people like everybody else," he said.
He's amazed by the cardinals' breath of knowledge, education and their grasp of the challenges and concerns faced by people everywhere.
"Their understanding of history and of the world is fascinating," he said. "I learn from them and (see) the nuances of the difficulties that the world is facing.
Swanepoel (the Belgian name is pronounced swan-ah-pool) spends most of every workday at U.N. meetings. On any given day 30 different meetings are in process--on topics as varied as global road safety, illicit trading of small arms and weapons, to the rights of women and children. The U.N.'s mission of maintaining international peace extends to its concerns for the economic and social wellbeing of the world's citizens. Problems like crime, poverty and heath care, including AIDS, transcend all borders.
Swanepoel writes some of the speeches given at the United Nations by Migliore. The mission team negotiates with U.N. members. (The Holy See Mission is not a full voting member of the United Nations. The mission has permanent observer status; it is a neutral political presence.)
"I go to the table and lobby the other countries to agree with the position of the Holy See," Swanepoel said. "The Catholic Church has one of the oldest diplomatic corps in the world." In fact, the church's diplomacy efforts date back to the 4th century.
"We often forget about the role of the church in the global sphere," he said.
Along with many other governments, the Holy See at the United Nations promotes faith and decency, health care and health insurance.
"You don't need to be Catholic to understand (and be concerned about) morality and justice in the world," he said. "The church has a very powerful voice of charity. Twenty-five percent of all HIV care is done by Catholic-based institutions."
While the mission presents the church's point of view on world issues, they look for points that all 182 U.N. members can agree on.
"When we all come together it can be cordial and productive," Swanepoel said. "People are far apart in ideas. There are differing opinions but there's a (similar) underlying sense of justice."
What prepared him for this remarkable job? He graduated from Glenwood City High School in 1998 then attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and majored in international relations, political science and history with an emphasis on Middle Eastern studies. During these years he worked at the Newman Parish in Eau Claire and from experiences there learned how the "church is organized."
In 2005 he received a law degree from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., and credits its "quality legal training" with helping him to understand his own faith and the social teachings of church better.
Following graduation, a one-year internship at the Mission of the Holy See resulted in full-time employment there.
Swanepoel lives in mid-town Manhattan. Fortunately, the paid rent is one of the perks of the job. He said his $2,000-a-month studio apartment is "nice by New York standards," but appalling by Wisconsin standards--a glorified closet of only 300 square feet.
There's another unusual aspect of his job: The mission staff is served lunch every day, a three-course Italian meal, which Swanepoel calls a "horrible" blessing.
"It's difficult on the waistline," he said.
He's come a long way, works with important people on important issues and his mother calls him "a very fortunate young man" and couldn't be prouder.
"I think it is wonderful to know that a former altar server from a small town like Glenwood City has had the opportunity to be involved in world affairs on behalf of the Catholic Church," she said.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2008