Britain’s most senior Catholic has said that the Church has forgotten the importance of mercy during the past few decades. Ahead of next month’s synod on the family, Cardinal Vincent Nichols told a press conference that he grew up in a “Church that understood itself as a Church of sinners”. “[But] I don’t think it’s Read more
The Catholic Archbishop of Westminster will join the Archbishop of Canterbury and representatives of other faiths to bury King Richard III next year. Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster said it is fitting that King Richard’s “remains should be reinterred with dignity and accompanied by the prayers of the Church in Leicester Cathedral, the mediaeval parish Read more
Britain’s House of Lords has allowed a second reading to a bill that would legalise assisted suicide, which is currently a crime. The assisted dying bill, proposed by the former Lord Chancellor, Charles Falconer, would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to mentally competent patients who have less than six months to live. But Read more
A cardinal who will run a session of October’s synod on the family says he is shocked at responses to a Vatican questionnaire on the topic. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila told the Catholic News Service he found the responses “shocking, if I am allowed to use that word”. “Shocking because almost in all Read more
Pope Francis has re-confirmed Cardinal Marc Ouellet PSS, 69, as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, an office he has headed since 2010. But the Pope today also significantly altered the congregation’s membership by replacing three leading conservatives – including US Cardinal Raymond Burke, 65. Among the new faces is 68-year-old Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Read more
The Archbishop of Westminster has attacked politicians’ “shameful” response to conflict in Syria as thousands of Christians around the country gathered this weekend to pray for peace. Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Sunday programme Archbishop Vincent Nichols criticised the leaders of the G20 group of nations for failing to reach an accord when they met Read more
Catholic bishops have told the British government that members of the royal family who marry Catholics under the provisions of new legislation will not be obliged to bring up their children as Catholics. During a House of Lords debate, Lord Wallace of Tankerness said he had been assured personally by Monsignor Marcus Stock, general secretary Read more
An Olympic Cross, hospitality centres for athletes and round-the-clock adoration of the Blessed Sacrament are featuring in the Catholic pastoral programme for the London Olympic Games. The cross will stand at the Joshua Camp, an international Catholic Olympic gathering in East London, until August 13. The camp provides hospitality and creates a Catholic presence to Read more
The Archbishop of Westminister, Vincent Nichols, is standing by his support for special Masses provided for homosexuals in the archdiocese. Nichols has shrugged of recent criticism that Masses for homosexuals provide a platform for dissent from Church teaching, and he reaffirmed the Westminister diocese’s pastoral provision for gay Catholics. Rejecting complaints that the gatherings in Read more
Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols says religions must be free to “speak from their traditions”, and that their involvement in national debates “enriches democracy”. He warned that if respect for a wide range of opinions is abandoned, society will deteriorate into a situation where we become “either dominators or dominated”, while the abandonment of Christian Read more