Vatican City, Apr 3, 2009 / 08:55 am
Today Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham to become the 11th Archbishop of Westminster. The "prayerful" and "consultative" archbishop will take over an archdiocese that is considered the head of the Catholic Church in England.
Nichols, who is 63 years old, was once considered a "liberal" by some, according to the Telegraph, but has shown to be a powerful force in the British Catholic Church for defending Church teaching and is not afraid to challenge the media.
In a press conference today after the announcement was made, the archbishop said that when he was told he was to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the previous Archbishop of Westminster, he "just swallowed hard and said ‘yes’" saying that his life is about a "desire to play a part in the mission of the Church, under the obedience of the Church."
He also said that there was "a lot sadness" in leaving his post as Archbishop of Birmingham, calling the priests there "very splendid" and the Archdiocese "the home of the revival of the re-establishment of the Catholic Church in [England] after the restoration of the hierarchy" in the 1850s.