After Almost Five Years in Westminster, Archbishop Vincent Nichols Is Named a Cardinal by Pope Francis
By Liz Dodd
[with video] The Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, is to be made a cardinal, Pope Francis announced today. He, along with 18 others, including men from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, will be appointed at the upcoming consistory in Rome on 22 February. Pope Francis made the announcement to hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at the end of the Angelus in St Peter's Square. Archbishop Nichols will become the only cardinal of voting age in England and Wales. The former Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, turned 80 last year, making him ineligible to vote in the conclave that elected Pope Francis. Vincent Nichols was born in Crosby, Merseyside, in 1945 and trained at the Venerable English College, Rome. He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Liverpool on 21 December 1969 and served there for 14 years before taking on a number of roles in the Catholic Bishops Conference for England and Wales. He was named an auxiliary bishop for Westminster by Pope John Paul II in 1991 and was made a bishop in 1992, aged 46, then the youngest in the UK. He was made Archbishop of Birmingham in 2000, where he served until being named Archbishop of Westminster in 2009. In December Pope Francis appointed him to the Congregation for Bishops, the Vatican body that oversees appointments to the episcopacy. Highlights of his time as Archbishop of Westminster included the success of the Papal Visit of Pope Emeritus Benedict to the UK in 2010; however during the same period he came under pressure from Rome for his support of the "Soho Masses" set up to support lesbian and gay Catholics and their families. For a full profile of Archbishop Nichols see this week's Tablet. Watch Pope Francis announce the names of the new cardinals in St Peter's Square in Rome.
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