Lay Roman Catholics — and an Anglican bishop — consider the challenges facing Vincent Nichols as the new Archbishop of WestminsterLord Alton of Liverpool
Pope Benedict has given Vincent Nichols one of the toughest assignments in the Roman Catholic world. It is a task he will approach with his customary enthusiasm and energy.
Westminster will not be a bed of roses. In a hostile, aggressively secularised world, he will have any number of embittered enemies. We are fortunate that Pope Benedict has chosen an archbishop who understands the nature of our fractured contemporary society. Vincent Nichols has been well schooled in how to use high office to work for the common good. His ability to combine this spirituality with temporal concerns has been reflected in his political interventions.
When he assumes his new duties he will be confronted with a whole series of controversial questions about what constitutes our humanity and how human dignity can best be protected. Vincent Nichols is an archbishop for our times. He may well make himself unpopular in some quarters but he will give clear and principled leadership to the Catholic Church in England.
William Oddie, former editor of the Catholic Herald
Increasingly it is the Archbishop of Westminster who is called on as a national spokesman for the Christian community as a whole, as much as or more than the Archbishop of Canterbury. It has not escaped the media that there are now more Roman Catholics in church on Sunday than there are Anglicans. Given the increasing intellectual and moral confusion of Anglicanism over issues such as homosexual priests and women priests, a Church that knows its own mind on these issues will appeal to the media. The significance of this appointment is that Archbishop Nichols can handle the media and will spot difficult questions coming. And unlike many of his brother bishops, he has made it clear that he will support the Pope.
Clifford Longley, writer, broadcaster
The Catholic Church needs to find a fresh message for the age we live in, and Vincent Nichols is the right man to deliver it. He’s always been interested in what makes society tick, and what goes wrong when it becomes dysfunctional. That means finding language that will cross barriers and doesn’t only make sense to other Catholics, but says things that people of all persuasions and none can recognise instinctively as wise and true.
But we don’t want more lectures from church leaders on bankers’ greed, and so on; we know all that. We need to hear how society needs to reform, and how we need to reform ourselves too, so we don’t just dig ourselves out of the hole we are in and then go and fall into it again. It’s about values, but more specifically, it’s about rediscovering the virtues.
Archbishop Nichols understands that — his job is to make it sound convincing and attractive, not like a sermon. We need the Catholic Church to have a human face, not just user friendly but kindly too. People crave authenticity. He needs to be himself. I’ve known him more than 30 years, and I am very optimistic he can do all that.
Nicholas Lash, Norris-Hulse Professor Emeritus of Divinity at Cambridge University
The gravest challenge that Archbishop Nichols faces, together with his brother bishops and with other Christian leaders in this country, is to find ways of helping the churches to come to grips with the extraordinary extent to which, within only a few decades, Christian beliefs and practices have become, not unknown, but apparently unintelligible to considerable numbers of people.
Most people think they know what Christianity is about, and they don’t.
Almost as serious, in its own way, is the growing shortage of priests. It is of the very heart and essence of Catholic Christianity that it is a communion of eucharistic communities. Starve the Church of the Mass, and the Church dies. The question of celibacy is something of a red herring here. The vocation to celibacy is part of the vocation of radical poverty for the sake of the kingdom; that is to say: it is part of the vocation to the religious life. And British Catholics have not batted an eyelid in finding, among their priests, married men who had previously been Anglican priests.
Tina Beattie, Professor of Catholic Studies, Roehampton University
The Catholic hierarchy sometimes seems to share society’s obsession with sex, in so far as issues of sexuality dominate most public debates between the Church and secular politics. Yet the Church’s position is increasingly perceived as anachronistic even by many Catholics, on matters such as sexual and reproductive health care, the role of women, and the validity of loving same-sex relationships.
The new archbishop might create a more credible and effective role for the Catholic Church in shaping public values if he deflected attention away from questions of sexuality and focused instead on promoting the Church’s teachings on social and economic justice, the environment and the condemnation of war as an acceptable form of conflict resolution in the modern world. These should be the areas where the Church’s leaders express most strongly their opposition to the dominant political ethos.
James MacMillan, composer
The new Archbishop will no doubt be aware of a widespread anxiety in the Church, stretching from the Pope himself right down into the pews, that there are problems with the liturgy. Vatican II gave clear guidelines that Catholic tradition should be maintained and nurtured in the new rite. Liturgical “activists” have used the vacuum after the Council to push their own agenda of de-poeticisation, de-sacralisation, and a general dumbing down of the Church’s sacred praise. Pope Benedict is determined to confront the problem. The faithful are fed up with sloppy practice, inappropriate, terrible music and the gradual drift away from Catholic standards in the liturgy. My hope is that Archbishop Nichols will give a clear lead in the pursuit of profundity in liturgy. This means a recognition that there were terrible mistakes made in the past few decades that have made new Catholic congregational music a laughing stock.
The Right Rev Geoffrey Rowell, Anglican Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe
In common with all church leaders in Britain, and indeed in Europe, Archbishop Vincent is faced with the challenge of developing a rigorous and imaginative Christian apologetic. We live in a time when on the one hand many cultured despisers dismiss Christianity out of hand, or identify it with crude fundamentalist assertions, and when on the other subjective religiosity can flourish; the strong intellectual tradition of Christianity needs to be recovered. This needs to be grounded in prayer and spirituality and no less in service and in a prophetic witness against the idolatries of money, sex and power that so often characterise our society. The Christian faith has at its heart an understanding of the human person as created in the image of the God of love, seen in its fullness in Jesus Christ. That must be at the centre of the Church’s life and witness. The mission of the Church is to share that faith, and, as I was once told by the present Pope, “in Europe today no one of us can do it alone”. The ecumenical journey, no matter how difficult, is a Christian imperative. The Church is to be one that the world may believe. That demands speaking the truth in love, and building close relationships in a shared mission.
Josephine Quintavalle, Catholic involved in pro-life work
The pro-life movement in this country will undoubtedly be very well served by Archbishop Vincent Nichols, who has a well-established reputation for courageous defence of human life from conception to natural death. We look forward to his strong national leadership against embryo experimentation, abortion and euthanasia, continuing in the tradition of his predecessors in the Westminster Archdiocese. Christian principles of human dignity are very much under attack in the United Kingdom today, and we hope that our new Archbishop will encourage greater dialogue, and greater unity, particularly among Catholics, as we face the difficult years ahead.'
Catherine Pepinster, Editor, The Tablet
Public outrage over MPs’ expenses confirms that ordinary people still have an innate sense of decency. How we live our lives is not just about following the rules or bending them but requires a strong sense of what is morally acceptable and unacceptable. The new archbishop of Westminster can build on that. He needs to be a powerful voice against utilitarianism, which has so profoundly affected public discourse on issues such as treatment of the unborn, care of the elderly and of the dying. And when the recession is affecting so many there is a chance for him to urge people to think about how we create a people-centred rather than money-centred society. He must challenge any attempt to further secularise Britain. As Pope Benedict said in Amman: “Religion protects civil society from the excesses of the unbridled ego”.
Brendan Walsh, Editorial Director, DLT
‘He has the humility and wit to know that he needs lots of help. That’s the honest and courageous sort of leadership we need. And he will show Catholics how to argue better. English Catholics of various stripes have always rubbed along pretty well, but the conversation between us has turned a little sour recently and that’s sad and silly. He loves to listen and to learn as well as to teach, and he looks for words that will help us all find our way to heaven, not just the few who have managed to work out all the right answers to the big questions.
Luke Coppen, Editor, The Catholic Herald
I hope the archbishop will lose no time in addressing Britain's profound economic, political, social and spiritual crisis. He has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to speak to the British people and convince them that the Catholic Church has important things to say about the things they worry about. He needs to let people know that the Church cares about them as individuals and will work with all its strength to make this country a better place to live in.
Lord Brennan of Bibury
Our new archbishop is a man to meet real challenges. Here are three of many. First, we are going through a deep and damaging recession in which the promotion of shared values is of the utmost importance to ensure that we produce out of this crisis a decent society working for the common good. The Church under his leadership is very well-placed to make a significant contribution within the Catholic community and across the country.
Second, Catholics are brought up in their religion particularly through their schools. I am sure the archbishop will continue to lead on the major issue of faith schools and our democratic entitlement to educate our children within our religious beliefs. The fight to protect faith schools has to be determined but argued with all his capacity for reasoned and persuasive debate.
Third, the threat of Euthanasia legislation is continuing and we can rely on him to explain clearly the value of life until its end, and to identify the particular danger in which assisted dying becomes a proxy for economic decisions about ending life.
Ann Widdecombe MP for Maidstone and the Weald
The major challenge facing any Christian leader at the present time is the marginalisation of Christianity in this country, especially the suppression of Christian opinion, the trumping of Christian rights by homosexual rights and the increasing tendency to surrender our own faith in the belief that any expression of it will offend other faiths. ( They merely think we are quite mad and regard such antics with bemusement not gratitude). Tony Blair says he didn't convert to Catholicism before leaving number ten in case people thought he was "a nutter". Basil Hume brought Catholicism out of the closet in Britain. Vincent Nichols must now assert it and face down the growing view that religion is somehow embarrassing!
Bishop Gregory Cameron of St Asaph, Director of Ecumenical Affairs for the Anglican Communion, 2003 – 2009
The biggest ecumenical challenge is that the new archbishop inherits a pattern of very warm ecumenical relationship in England and Wales which he has got to sustain. That is not easy in a background where Pope Benedict is showing himself to be lukewarm at best with other churches in the ecumenical tradition. What we see is a papacy that is showing quite a lot of interest towards the Orthodox Church, especially in Pope Benedict’s case towards the Russian Orthodox Church but does not seem to have any real enthusiasm towards churches in the Western Christian tradition. There’s a happiness to go through the motions but one doesn’t get a sense of any real warmth ithere. The English Catholic church is much warmer in its relations with the Church of England than Rome would necessarily appreciate. Vincent Nichols has to balance loyalty to Rome over and against this warm ecumenical tradition.”
Daniel Johnson is the Editor of Standpoint
Not since Catholic emancipation has the Church in England and Wales felt so beleaguered by a hostile state, society and media. Archbishop Vincent Nichols should respond with a combination of intellectual energy, exemplary leadership and personal piety, just as his hero Cardinal Newman did in the Victorian era. He can count on the support of Pope Benedict XVI in re-establishing a distinctive Catholic culture of life, while regaining the initiative in the public square by challenging the culture of death. The Archbishop should be forthright in proclaiming the Catholic achievement, whether in education, voluntary work or community cohesion. He has a good story to tell, but it could be an even better one. Vince Nichols possesses charisma in its original, Christian sense of God's grace. He will need moral and physical courage too, if he is to inspire his flock of five million to remind the rest of the nation that the Catholic Church's role in Western civilisation has been, and always will be, indispensable.
Mary Kenny, Journalist
I think Archbishop Nichols is a man of firm leadership and will not need much prompting to go on doing what he has been doing - preaching the faith in season and out of season, and not being afraid of the fashions for the "politically correct".
The strength of Catholic moral theology is that it works from principles, not from pragmatics. When you "judge each case on its merits", you are liable to lose ground increasingly, and then to react with inconsistency. When you work from a principle, you can uphold a value while showing compassion on individual frailty. That's the beacon which needs to be held aloft - and I am sure will be.
Noel Murphy, National Director, Youth 2000
Young people have burning questions about life and the Church has the answers. It offers the path to happiness. The challenge for the Church is to present Christ in a way which allows them to have a real encounter with him.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Source (TO)
SV (ED)