British cardinal says ‘deeply moved’ by Vatican honour

London Evening Standard/LondonThe leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has been created a cardinal by Pope Francis.The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, received the symbolic red hat at a consistory ceremony in Rome.The Archbishop was one of 19 cardinals created during the ceremony yesterday at St Peter’s Basilica. A Papal Mass with the new cardinals - all elevated to the Catholic clergy’s second highest rank - will take place tomorrow. It means they will be granted a place at the conclave which will be consulted to elect the next Pope.Archbishop Nichols, the 11th Archbishop of Westminster to receive the honour, said when it was announced last month that he was “deeply moved” by it.He added: “The Catholic Church in our countries has always had a profound and loving loyalty to the Holy Father, the Successor of St Peter.“This appointment enables me, on behalf of all, to serve the pope in a direct and prolonged way.“Personally, this is a humbling moment when I am asked to take a place in this service of the Holy See and in the line of much-loved Cardinal Archbishops of Westminster.“I seek the blessing of the Almighty God for these new responsibilities and I ask for the prayers of all people of faith that I may fulfill them with energy and devotion.”Born in Crosby, Liverpool, in November 1945, Archbishop Nichols studied for the priesthood at the Venerable English College in Rome from 1963 to 1970, gaining licences in philosophy and theology at the Gregorian University.He was ordained as a priest in Rome in 1969 before taking a MA degree in theology at Manchester University.In 1984 he was appointed general secretary of the Bishops’ Conference in England and Wales and was named Archbishop of Birmingham in 2000 before returning to Westminster in 2009 as Archbishop, the same year he was unanimously elected president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.The Archbishop courted controversy earlier this month when he said that people being forced to turn to food banks in an affluent country in the 21st century was a “disgrace”. He said the government had decimated even the most “basic safety net” for those threatened by poverty.