Cardinal's article in 'Sunday Telegraph', 1 January 2006

Wherever disaster has struck this year, faith-filled testimonies have quickly followed, the Archbishop of Westminster argued in an article in a British Sunday newspaper.

'A Life in the Day' profile in The Sunday Times magazine, 11 December 2005

Contemporary society is promising for evangelisation because it values conversion and choice, the Archbishop of Westminster told a gathering of Catholic evangelists on Wednesday night.

The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, has called on Britain to build a new spiritual humanism of peace in the wake of the 7 July bombings.

Interview with Avvenire

In an article in this morning's Daily Telegraph, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor says Londoners need to listen to the experience of Lourdes - a place which celebrates 'vulnerability'.

The Cardinal is at the Marian shrine this week leading the Westminister Diocesan pilgrimage. He returns to London on Friday.

Ecclesia Caritatis: Reasons for Living and Hoping.

'John Paul II will leave us all orphans. I shall miss him'

If God died for all of us, it is not ours to decide who is fit to live

In the many interviews I have given since the Tsunami, I have been asked, in effect, the question “Is God dead?” But I have been struck that most of my interviewers, and I believe the wider public, have been looking not for an answer of despair, but for an answer of hope. The response to the Tsunami around the world, and perhaps especially in our own country, shows that values, a sense of community, and the generosity of the Good Samaritan, are there in large measure. But it takes something dramatic to shake us out of our day-to-day complacency.

As Presidents of Churches Together in England we believe that the fight against poverty and injustice must be at the top of the agenda this year. The generosity of governments and individuals after the Tsunami shows that the world is capable of responding to a tragedy which touches everyone. We must allow the plight of the thirty thousand who die each day to touch us and move us to action as well.

Britain is not as secular as some hope

Christmas has become a season of anxiety. 'Is Britain still a Christian country?' is the question on the lips of radio and television presenters. This year it was the Posh and Becks Nativity waxworks that prompted the question, coinciding as it did with Channel 4's distasteful pastiche of the Da Vinci Last Supper in the posters advertising its seasonal programmes. The growing secularisation of Britain, it seems, is the one forecast that can be relied on....

Cardinal's article in 'The Times' of 9 Dec 2004.

The Cardinal, who is a co-president of the Churches Together in England (CTE), was one of a number of speakers at the forum of Christian leaders, who gathered at Stick Rochford Hall, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, to consider the theme of 'Sharing the Vision' over the weekend of 5-7 November.

have been reflecting on the era in which the Royal Society began, namely, the Enlightenment. Those years of the 17th and 18th Centuries were an extraordinary period. What was it Alexander Pope said about Newton? 'Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night. God said, 'Let Newton be and all was light'' Enlightenment was an optimistic creed. Out with authority and revealed religion, and in with Reason and the critical faculty. Out with the old sciences, in with the new science, whereby the improvement of the world would be made possible, unlocking the mysteries of nature and revealing their logical, rational foundations in the laws of physics and chemistry. The world was to get better and better and would continue to do so...

Dialogue with People of No Belief:
Ethics, Aesthetics and Leadership


Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Rome: 11 March 2004

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor
Archbishop of Westminster


There is a magnificent passage in Pope John Paul's encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, where he speaks about man, humankind, as the primary and fundamental way for the Church. He says Man, in the full truth of his existence, of his personal being, and also of his community and social being, in the sphere of his own family, in the sphere of society and very diverse contexts, in the sphere of his own nation or people, and in the sphere of the whole of mankind, this man is the primary route that the Church must travel in fulfilling her mission. He is the primary and fundamental way for the Church, the way traced out by Christ Himself. ...

The question of what it means to be human, and to live the fullness of human life as God intends we should, is one of the most important challenges we face. The question takes on added urgency for all who are actively engaged with young people - in education, in intellectual and spiritual formation, and in family and community life. How do we help young people to contribute not only to their own happiness, but to the flourishing of our society and of our culture?

As Christians we need to cultivate a careful and a sensitive regard for the culture of which we are part. It is not from outside, or apart from the world, that we live as Christians, it is from within. Both faith and culture present us with challenges. Let's take three...

I am delighted to be with you this evening for this lecture. I am especially delighted to be in Wales. I don't get here often enough. So when invited to come and talk to you this evening I jumped at the chance. You will know what I mean when I recall writing to congratulate Rowan Williams on his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury 'Don't forget' says I 'We Celts must stick together!'

But there's another reason why I am pleased to be with you this evening. At the risk of alienating half the audience, it's because this is a university and I am hoping that there will be plenty of young people in the audience. There is a theory doing the rounds which says that young people aren't interested any longer in the Church, in meeting archbishops, or in talking about the deepest things in life. Well if that is really the case my experience must be the exception that proves the rule. I try and make time to meet the young people of my diocese on a regular basis - about once a month in fact. If those meetings are anything to go by the theorists may need to think again....

I am very pleased to be here with you today; and I am very pleased to see such a diverse group of decision makers and opinion formers together in the same room discussing issues of such profound importance.
We live in a time in which a new kind of discourse is growing up. It is a discourse about a scourge which has the power to frighten people, and to cause them to look at the world in a new way. That scourge is terrorism. Now I do not want to belittle the terrible scourge of terrorism, or the truth that it is more dangerous today than it has ever been.

There is increasing talk of so-called 'failed states' - by which it is meant states within which the kinds of controls and regulations which allow for an orderly and secure environment are not present. Failed states are states which don't work properly. We point the finger at such states because we fear that it is there that terrorism is allowed to flourish....

There are three things, at least, that we in this room have in common: we are human and therefore sinful - but you'll be relieved to hear that I am not intending to enlarge on that theme; we are all men and women of letters - in our various capacities we all enjoy writing; and we think, or rather we know, that words matter. In fact words matter a great deal; and not just to us, to everyone. They matter for one simple reason - which I will come back to in a moment.

But first I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the health of the word today and see what lessons we might draw for our writing, and for the writing of those we read and listen to - not least, but not only, in the media. We could try and do for the world of the word what Johnny Morris and David Attenborough do for the world of animals and plants. They bring them alive by looking from the inside out. Like those amazing images of duck-billed platypus filmed from inside their nests by a tiny microscopic camera. What might things look like from inside the habitat of the English language today. What is the buzz in the corridors of word power in 2004?...

For some the story of the martyrs of sixteenth century England can still touch a sensitive nerve in ecumenical relations - four and a half centuries after they died. So I think it is appropriate to pay tribute to the generosity of spirit and imagination which lies behind today’s service. I would like to express my thanks to the Chaplain of the Tower for bringing us together to honour a saint so closely identified with my own Church, the Church of Rome. Our thanks are due too to Peter and Rosalind Bearcroft who have guided John Fisher’s plaque safely to port. I can only imagine that John Fisher is rejoicing to see both the Bishop of London, and the successor to his own episcopal see of Rochester, here - so close to the place where he died.

Our celebration this evening is rich in symbolism – and I would like to think most powerfully rich in the symbolism of our reconciliation in the truth. ...

May I first say thank you for inviting me to be with you at the start of your conference today. I consider it a privilege to be among you, and I am pleased that you are among us, the diocese of Westminster. Looking at the extraordinary diversity of organisations represented here today, it feels a bit like a gathering of the clans. I sense something of a warrior spirit in the room. I suspect you mean it when you say “Fighting economic injustice”. I am reminded of the Duke of Wellington – surveying the battlefield at Waterloo and particularly the serried ranks of the Guards regiments he remarked “They may not frighten the enemy, but by God they frighten me!!”

I would like to pay a small tribute to the organisers of your seminar, notably the Vincentian Millennium Partnership and the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, with the support of Caritas - social action. It is hugely encouragingto see organizations such as these working together to fight injustice. The Vincentians I know well of course. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers all over the world, as well as a range of religious orders, have worked with and for the poor, for well over two hundred years – all inspired by the example of St Vincent de Paul. On the 9th of November Sister Rosalie Rendu, who became a Daughter of Charity in 1802, was beatified...

This weekend is a time of great joy and celebration in Westminster Diocese. By the time you read this, we will already have marked the Launch of our Diocesan programme of spiritual and personal renewal ‘At Your Word, Lord’ with a mass for 12,000 parishioners at Wembley Arena on Friday night.

And on Saturday and Sunday a further 40,000 Westminster parishioners will have signed up to join one of the thousands of small faith sharing communities that form the core of our renewal project.

I am very happy to be with you today on the occasion of the Catholic Women of the Year celebration especially as it is your 35th birthday. So – first a special word of congratulation to your Chairman Angela and all those who are so generous with their time and energy on your, indeed on all our behalves.

This is a very special celebration of what it means to be Catholic, and to be women committed to all manner of practical, spiritual and pastoral good works in our community. Not only does the Church need your commitment and your particular gifts.

Our society needs them too. Frankly we need more like you. So hopefully some of you will still be here in another 35 years celebrating success – yes – but much more important the love and commitment which inspires other women, and men too, to give of themselves in the place they find themselves. ...

Challenged by Change: Serving the Community in a Modern World
Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst:

I think I can say with some confidence that one of the most challenging, almost frightening, aspects of modern life is the increasing pace of change. Many of the changes we see around have been stimulated by the technological explosion which began mid way through the last century and picked up incredible speed with the development of the PC and the internet. By comparison with the situation we grew up in forty, fifty or sixty years ago very few, if any, aspects of our lives have been left untouched by these rapid developments, particularly in the IT world. ...

Opening Address - CARJ Congress 2003 - Southlands College:

First I want to say how good is it to see so many here today. This gathering is an important and an authentic sign of the rich diversity of the people of God, which is the universal Church.

Look around the room and you see how diverse is the local church in England & Wales. We are here to celebrate that fact. We are here to make known to one another how much we care about each other, and how profoundly we wish to affirm one another in our diversity. Our unity in the body of Christ is not a unity despite diversity. It is a unity which sanctifies and glorifies the diversity of the people of God. Christ died not for one group of people, or one race. He died for every race, for every daughter and son of God who is the Creator of us all. The Good News of Jesus Christ is not only good news for you, and for me. It is Good news for every one of our brothers and sisters with whom we share our common humanity. Even if we cannot be one in faith, we can be, we are, one in the sight of God, and in solidarity. The fellowship of human beings is not like the fellowship of nations, which is so often fractured. It is something far more profound and subtle. It places upon us a great burden of responsibility. If we are sisters and brothers then together we are one family. If we are one family, we are allowed to fall out with each other now and again. But we have an obligation to make our watchwords love, forgiveness, mutual respect, tenderness and steadfastness....

CTE Forum 2003

The Forum gives us a regular opportunity to stop and reflect on our experiences to date as Churches Together at local and national level. I want to reflect from the perspective of a Church Leader on the many Reports we’ve all received– to see what they might help us understand about the bigger picture of our growing common life....

Day for Life - Sunday Telegraph:

This week we finally got the wake up call we needed. While foxes dominated the news from Parliament, the rest of the country was reeling from reports that scientists in Israel and the Netherlands had 'successfully' removed the immature ovaries from an aborted foetus, and matured the eggs in a laboratory. That was Tuesday. On Thursday we discovered that an American scientist had purpose-created a “hermaphrodite” embryo, again in a laboratory....

Building of the Year Award – 11 June 2003

I want to begin by thanking our hosts – the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust and BSkyB – for their generosity in bringing so many lovers of architecture together; but also for their imagination in inviting, the professionals, the creators, the dreamers of dreams to submit your work for critical appraisal in the hopes of winning recognition for their achievements. Aspiration is an essential ingredient in the continuing development of our collective human potential. Your role of architects as formers of the spaces in which we live and work is crucial in bringing the hopes which motivate us, and the reality which surrounds us, closer together. ...

Introductory remarks – Fides et Ratio Conference, Heythrop College, 31 May

Viewed through the lens of the historian every age yields up characteristics peculiar to itself. Those living at the time, and especially thinkers – philosophers and theologians like yourselves – may capture in their work some of the creative genius or the prevailing despondency of their time. But contemporary experience is too immediate to catch the overarching spirit of an age. That we have to leave to hindsight. We can only catch a flash of kingfisher blue. And not the whole spectacular flight along the riverbed.

The Tablet - 31st May 2003

The French Dominican Fr Yves Congar, with is groundbreaking work on the laity, made a huge impression on me as a young priest in the late Fifties. In his book Lay People in the Church, Congar stressed the need for basic Christian communities. These, he said, allowed people to rediscover the Church. For many of his contemporaries, he explained, 'the Church's machinery, sometimes the very institution, is a barrier obscuring her deep and living mystery, which they can find, or find again, only from below'. Through 'the living reality' of 'little church cells wherein the mystery is lived directly and with great simplicity', it was possible to experience the Church as it most truly was, the hierarchically structured people of God 'to whose life all its members contribute and which is patterned by give and take and a pooling of resources'.
I believed Congar was right then; and nearly 50 years on, I still believe him to be right. He was touching on an important truth, which is that renewal in the Church has come about, time and time again in its history, in and through the inspiration of small communities - monastic, evangelical, missionary, lay communities, communities of women - all fired by the Holy Spirit. They have been enormously diverse, but all fit Congar's description 'basic Christian community', and they all mirror, surely, that description of the earliest Church community who 'devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.' (Acts 2: 42)

A Vision of Christian Unity for the Next Generation
Cardinal Walter Kasper

Thank you for your warm invitation, and thank you for the welcome. I am very honoured, although at the same time I am somewhat perplexed by the issue upon which you have asked me to speak: “A vision of Christian unity”. I belong to a German tribe called the Swabians, and we are known to be sober and hard-headed people. Visions are not so much our affair. Maybe or probably I have my dreams, but when I awake in the morning, unfortunately I have mostly forgotten them. So for a psychoanalyst I would be a hopeless case. But even so, standing with both feet on the ground, we are able to distinguish between authentic Christian hope, which always is hope under the cross and therefore a crucified hope, and human dreams and utopian visionary expectations.

I would like to begin this evening by sharing with you a reflection given by one of the monks of the Cistercian Trappist Abbey of Our Lady of Atlas in Algeria who was killed, together with six of his confreres in May 1996 - in fact their anniversary is next week. Two years before their assassination by Islamic fundamentalists, Fr Christian de Chergé, their Superior, wrote an A-Dieu which he asked his brother to keep in case his life was taken. It captures much of what we come together this evening to reflect upon. I should like if I may to quote extracts...

For many years I was bishop of a rural diocese, which meant I lived in a house with a large garden. One of the social and liturgical highlights of the summer was a special celebration of an open air Mass with disabled people in the diocese and their families. Invariably our liturgy would be followed by tea and impromptu music and dancing. I will always remember one man whose wife had been very ill for many years. They had a disabled daughter. This man came to the Mass every year. One summer I caught sight of him and his daughter dancing together after the celebration. I had never before seen such intense love and suffering, radiating simultaneously, on the face of a human person. It was like a glimpse of transfiguration. It was as if the suffering he so clearly experienced only increased his love for his daughter, and his love for his daughter in turn deepened his inner suffering. The two things - suffering and love - were combined in the one face, and in the one life.

In the past weeks, the Cardinal's office has been approached from many quarters about the issue of child protection within the Church and society. This is by no means an exhaustive study but aims to provide a general introduction into the background to the current situation.

On Monday 16 December 2002 Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster and former bishop in the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, along with the current bishop, the Rt Rev Kieran Conry, held a joint press briefing at the Secretariat of the Catholic Bishops' Conference to report on the ten historic cases of allegations of child abuse (not including Michael Hill) involving priests of the diocese since the early 1980s.

The nub of the report commissioned by the two bishops from a firm of solicitors expert in child protection cases and legislation was that guidelines relevant at the time had been followed in each of the cases.

In accordance with the Data Protection Act and the Nolan Report*, the Cardinal made it clear that he was not authorised to disclose the identities of anyone involved in any of these cases. He was, however, prepared to answer specific questions on the handling of one case, details of which were already in the public domain.

The Times:

Sir,

To the welter of accusation, allegation and innuendo which today threatened to engulf a section of the media, The Times added a number of accusations of its own; notably that I turned a blind eye to the problem of paedophilia, and that victims have been paid 'hush' money. I reject both allegations.

I should begin by reiterating that my decision to appoint Michael Hill to the chaplaincy at Gatwick Airport, after receiving conflicting psychiatric reports regarding his condition, was a mistake. I acknowledged that two years ago. I do so again. I am deeply sorry for the damage he has done, and to the extent that my decision contributed to any of that damage.

To the best of my knowledge every other allegation made against a priest in my time at Arundel and Brighton was reported to, or investigated by, either the social services, or the police, or both. From that point decisions regarding the factual basis of those allegations were a matter for the police and the prosecuting authorities. Since the introduction of the very strict guidelines adopted by the Church in 2001, in cases where no prosecution results, but allegations are regarded as well founded, action would now be taken to remove a priest from active ministry. This was not the case in the 1980s when, despite your assertions to the contrary, appropriate measures for dealing with paedophilia had not been in any way adequately developed, either in civil society or the Church. Inevitably mistakes have been made in the past; but not for want of trying to take the right and best course of action.

Nowhere in your report or leading article do you mention the independent review of child protection which I set up under Lord Nolan's chairmanship in summer 2000. Nor do you mention that his guidelines were accepted in full a year ago, and are now implemented, or in the process of implementation across the whole of England and Wales.

Hush money is a deliberate misnomer. Victims of abuse, whether or not their case is pursued by the police through to prosecution, and whether or not they have been abused within the Church or society as a whole are, and have always been, free to seek compensation. If individuals decide to seek compensation they will instruct solicitors to act on their behalf. Compensation is agreed between solicitors acting in a professional capacity, and in accordance with agreed norms.

You say: 'The Roman Catholic Church has an important and ongoing role as a moral leader in our society and a profound responsibility to the faithful…'. You are right. It is my responsibility to help lead the Roman Catholic community in its moral and spiritual witness, and also as an evangelising community in our society, even in the hardest times. You also suggest that some may feel a sense of betrayal arising from mistakes the Church has made in the past, including in relation to paedophilia. I suggest in turn that many others feel deeply concerned by the apparently relentless attack by parts of the media on their faith, and on the Church in which they continue to believe.

Yours faithfully,

+CORMAC MURPHY-O'CONNOR
Archbishop of Westminster
Archbishop's House
Westminster SW1P 1QJ
November 20, 2002

Heythrop College:

I am very grateful for the invitation to speak to you at this Symposium on Christopher Butler, Abbot of Downside and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Westminster. It is fitting that we do this in the centenary year of his birth, and in particular that this reflection focuses on Bishop Butler's contribution and insights into the Second Vatican Council.

The town of Reading has not too many claims to fame - but that is debatable! However, in the footnotes of history it might be recorded as the hometown of Abbot Christopher Butler and Cormac Murphy-O'Connor! Abbot Butler's family had a wine business in Reading and he grew up there. When we met we often talked about the 'old town' and its significance in the greater scheme of things. I only got to know Bishop Butler when I too became a bishop, by which time he was retired. But he always attended the Bishops' Conferences and there I began to appreciate his academic excellence, his dry humour and his theological insights, particularly his understanding of the Council.

St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham:

I chose to speak tonight about authority in the Church and in Society. I rather wish I hadn't!

Still you kindly chose to come and hear me speak, so as long so long as you don't go away thinking 'You rather wish you hadn't ' we'll all emerge the better for it!

The notion and the practice of authority touches us all in a deeply personal way. The existence of authority, or rather authorities, is a fact of your and my everyday life. Yet, if we're honest, we are uneasy with that reality. I suspect this is because though not synonymous, we find it difficult to separate the idea of authority from the idea of power. And power makes us nervous. In recent times we have become accustomed to question how power is exercised in the religious, social and political dimensions of our lives. We are very conscious, and increasingly intolerant, of what we perceive to be abuse of power.

Dublin, Ireland:


Ireland - my image of Ireland as much as the reality of Ireland - has always had a very precious place in my mind and heart. My father came over to England from Ireland just before the First World War, followed nine years later by my mother. Although born and brought up in England, I was never allowed to forget the country of my parents. Every summer, my father took a small house for a month in a place called Ardmore. I have many happy memories of those times. The kinds of memories that never seem to fade. They remain vivid and can be conjured up instantly when by a chance remark, a familiar sight or even a smell. I remember those holidays almost as though it were yesterday: playing, swimming, going to look at the Round Tower, or at the 'Pattern' of St. Declan - and always accompanied sooner or later by the gathering of family from far and wide. The family was so enormously important in those days. The family meant everything. Whether you were a small group or a gathering or the clan from around and about you always had that sense, especially as a child of being part of something very strong, very solid and something very important to all concerned.

The Times:

The Standards by which war with Iraq must be judged.
A conflict on the current evidence and terms would be difficult to support.


A key section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church urges us, because of the evils and injustices that accompany war, to pray and to do all we can not to be drawn into armed conflict. Indeed it goes further: 'All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war'.

Downside Abbey:

Tonight's lecture is about the pastoral office of a bishop. I would like to divide this lecture, like Gaul, into three parts. Firstly, I will speak about Christopher Butler from his own writings and try to expound his understanding of the Church with particular reference to the renewal engendered by the Second Vatican Council. Secondly, I would like to talk about some of the challenges that face the task of a bishop today. Thirdly, I will say a few words about the huge theme of evangelisation in our time and in our country.

Address given at the Symposium of European Bishops

We are here to discern afresh the signs of our times, especially as experienced by young people. We are also here to determine how we as Catholics might better respond to the challenge of being authentic and accessible signs of Christ for our times.

The world in which we live is the context in which we are called to witness to our faith. A problem for us is that the world is changing so fast. It is hard to keep up. No doubt this holds more true for leaders in the Church, than for Christians as a whole. We are a cautious lot. It takes time to develop responses to new currents of thought, behaviour and belief in the world around us. But it is clear that the world is not going to slow down to let us catch up. The onus is on us to read more accurately the narrative of our times and to respond in ways that are meaningful to people who do not share our own peculiarly ecclesial culture and language.

The Independent:

Sir,

Amidst the appalling human tragedy unfolding in the Middle East I wish to draw attention to the fact that over two hundred people, Christians and Moslems, are in serious danger of being allowed to starve to death in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ. Among them we believe are some 80 Catholic priests and nuns, as well as a large number of armed and unarmed Palestinians who burst into the church on 2 April and claimed its sanctuary. Since that date no food or water has been allowed into the church. Supplies are now running dangerously low.

The government of Israel has made clear that an attack on the church by the defence forces which surround it is not envisaged. If the present situation were allowed to continue there can only be two possible outcomes to the impasse: a negotiated settlement or the slow death by starvation of those held in the church.

To deprive people food and water and to deny the wounded essential medical assistance is contrary to humanitarian principles enshrined in international law. I appeal to the Israeli government to allow food, water and medical supplies into the church without delay and without prejudice to continuing efforts to resolve the standoff.

Yours Faithfully,

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor
Archbishop of Westminster

The Editor
The Independent
191 Marsh Wall
London E14 9RS

One of the most endearing characteristics of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was her sense of fun and her capacity to make everybody feel totally at ease in her company.

Less than a year ago I had the privilege of being next to her at a luncheon party. We talked about all sorts of things and began reminiscing about the Second World War. We found ourselves humming the old popular tunes like 'The White Cliffs of Dover', 'We'll Meet Again Don't Know Where Don't Know When'. Soon the whole table was joining in and it became a luncheon singsong.

When my predecessor, Cardinal Basil Hume, was told that he would die within a few months, he wrote a letter saying that he had received two wonderful graces. Firstly, that he had been given time to prepare for a new future and, secondly, he found himself calm and at peace. It seems to me, as I think about the Queen Mother, that it was somewhat the same for her. She had been preparing for death for a very long time. She did not fear it or change her life because of it. She continued living life to the full. Through marriage, and then an accident of history, the Queen Mother was called to live a life of duty and service to the nation and rose magnificently to the challenge, and well beyond, treating everybody she met with courtesy. She delighted in people and they loved her for it. She prepared for death with a good and generous and Christian life.

The Queen Mother, too, as she prepared for death, was calm and at peace. Her Christian faith admitted her - as well as us - into death's secrets. She has gone to a better place, where she will realise that all her experiences of goodness, of love and beauty and joy, are found perfectly in God. Christians believe that it is in heaven that we finally rest in God and, in some way, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. Father, we do well always and everywhere to give You thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is in Him Who rose from the dead that our hope of resurrection dawns. The sadness of death gives way to the bright promise of immortality. Lord, for Your faithful people, life is changed, not ended. When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death, we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven. May Elizabeth the Queen Mother, rest in peace.

Italian Magazine Il Regno:

Eminenza, si ricorda quando ci vedevamo a Pulborough, nel Sussex, negli anni '90? Lei era vescovo di Arundel and Brighton e copresidente della II Commissione internazionale anglicana-cattolica romana (ARCIC). Sua è la firma alla dichiarazione congiunta del settembre 1990 su: La Chiesa come comunione. Allora forse neppure lei pensava di succedere al card. Hume nella sede di Westminster. E invece, sono già trascorsi due anni da quando è stato nominato arcivescovo di Londra. Quando le fu comunicata la nomina, quali furono i suoi pensieri?

«Quando ricevetti la notizia della nomina ad arcivescovo di Westminster, il mio primo pensiero fu quello della rassegnazione. Non posso dire di essere stato del tutto sorpreso, perché in qualche modo si poteva prendere in considerazione questa eventualità, così, quando mi fu proposta la sede di Londra la accettai con un sentimento misto di rassegnazione e di apprensione, ma anche con molta fiducia. Pensai che per i pochi anni in cui sarei stato arcivescovo di Westminter avrei avuto un compito da svolgere. Il santo padre mi aveva scelto, c'era un compito da svolgere e, nonostante i miei limiti e le mie debolezze, avrei potuto farlo».

Address at a luncheon hosted by the Institute of Economic Affairs:

E.F. Schumacher the author of Small is Beautiful, once recalled how, on a visit to Leningrad, he consulted a street map but could not make out where he was. 'I could see several enormous churches, yet there was no trace of any of them on my map.' He had a map: but no bearings. Communist Russia treated churches as though they did not exist.

For Schumacher a penny had dropped. As in Leningrad, so in life: his education he decided had equipped him with a dud map. He had in effect been launched into uncharted waters. His map was detailed as far as the things of this world were concerned - things that scientific method and reasoning could reveal. It was sketchy, to say the least, when it came to the things he needed to negotiate the shallows, reefs and currents of everyday life - the values and beliefs which make our map three dimensional, readable: or in a word, real. There were no contours.

I think there is a lesson here for us all, and particularly those concerned with the education of young people.

Address to mark the close of the Bicentenary anniversary of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman's birth

Birmingham Oratory

Fr Provost, fellow guests, Bishop Philip, dear friends, it is a great pleasure for me to be with you this evening to mark the close of the Bicentenary Year honouring the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman. I don't suppose there is a person in this church who doesn't know who Newman was. Most of us I suspect have a very personal interest in him, and will have been moved by an encounter, literary or spiritual, or most likely both, with either his obvious holiness, his towering intellect, or his uncompromising devotion to the Church and her development. Newman was the quintessential man of faith and of reason. The man wedded to truth, mindful not only of the tradition of the Church, but of the vital importance of an informed conscience. A man at once completely of his time - a time of great upheaval in the Church - and, in so many ways, far ahead of his time...

Millennium Conference Centre, London:

It is not that often that an address by Pope John Paul II makes the Today programme particularly when it concerns an address to the annual meeting of the 20 prelates of the Roman Rota - the Vatican's final court of appeal on issues of Church law.

In fact the Today programme - in a rather partial and incomplete account of what the Holy Father said -stumbled into something far more important: a debate about the crucial importance of marriage to the health of our society. Which is why we are all here today...

Irish Post:

In a new year's message, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor talks to John Crowley about his first year as leader of England and Wales' 4.2million Catholics

CARDINAL Cormac Murphy-O'Connor still remembers the day he received his vocation to the priesthood.

More than 50 years later in a stately sitting room of Archbishop's House in London, the 68-year-old prelate sits back and is lost for a second in a vivid childhood memory.

'I can still remember the moment,' he says smiling to himself. Did his call to the priesthood involve a vision or a thunderbolt from the sky? Perhaps not. 'My father was out doing calls, I was 15, and he said: 'What do you want to do?' And I remember saying: 'I want to be a priest'. I remember saying it, but I was a bit surprised that it came out so firmly as if it had been going through my mind.'

'Duc in altum! ', 'Put out into the deep'. These are the words that ring out in John Paul II's Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, as an encouragement for the Third Millennium. They are also the challenging and encouraging words that Jesus addressed to his disciples (Lk 5:4) as he invited them to start afresh from Him in their work. They are the words that provide a good starting point for how we might go forward as a community of faith. We might say that Novo Millenio Ineunte is the pastoral programme for putting out into the deep, a guide for the Church's journey that relaunches the Church towards the future.

Daily Telegraph :

VICTORIA COMBE talks to Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor about his hopes for a New Year revival in Christianity

Tonight Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor will lead the most prominent religious service this Christmas. It will be broadcast live from Westminster Cathedral on BBC1 and is a sign that this softly-spoken bishop is now recognised as a national religious leader...

Sunday Telegraph :

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, reflects on evil in our world and why Christ's coming is so significant as the antidote

Who can doubt, as we look at our world today, that there is much suffering and much that is evil. Our experiences during life help us to understand more fully the lacrimae rerum - the tears that are at the heart of the human condition. There is the suffering of those stricken with illness, whether mental or physical; there is the pain of the loss of a loved one, and there is the suffering and misery of those who are without food, are afflicted by disease and who die young. Then there is the experience of evil: people who are cruel to each other, who inflict pain in terrible ways.

In the Guardian:

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, suggests that faith in Christ is not opposed to reason but is about seeking truth and primarily about how to live

The aftermath of September 11 has left many people troubled about the destructive power of warped religious fervour. It is clear that one element in those appalling attacks was the harnessing of religious zeal in the cause of terrorist aims, but the attacks have been condemned not least by many prominent Muslims. A wider debate has now opened up about the place and the power of religion, which the coming feast of Christmas prompts afresh....

Article in the Independent on Sunday:

This Christmas Eve Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor will celebrate midnight mass live on BBC1 - the most high-profile church service on television this festive season. It will be a highly significant occasion for the cardinal, the leader of Britain's 4.2 million Roman Catholics. For it will be the moment when he might finally step out of the shadows of his predecessor, the late Cardinal Basil Hume, the gentle monk who became one of the most respected religious leaders of his time.

The service in Westminster Cathedral will no doubt be a great liturgical occasion, full of pomp and ceremony, but it will be Murphy O'Connor's words that will be picked apart. Christmas is clearly a moment for a senior ecclesiastical figure to make his mark, and the last time this 68-year-old prelate made a major public statement, he shocked people with his pessimistic comments on Christianity. It was, said the cardinal, almost vanquished.

In the Telegraph:

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, says the Government's proposed Bill squanders a vital opportunity

I am convinced that the systematic manipulation of life through cloning, namely creating new lives for scientific research, is a dereliction of our ethical responsibilities. There has rarely been a stronger case for serious political attention to be given to a scientific issue.

Last week's High Court judgement revealed a disturbing chasm in our legislation, by rejecting the Government's intention to allow cloning only for experimental reasons. The Government has now introduced an emergency Bill in response to this judgement. There is indeed a need to act quickly, but the legislation must be well focused....

University of Surrey, Guildford:

The late E.F. Schumacher, the author of Small is Beautiful, once recalled how, on a visit to what was then known as Leningrad, he consulted a street map but could not make out where he was. 'I could see several enormous churches, yet there was no trace of any of them on my map. When finally an interpreter came to help me, he said: 'We don't show churches on our maps.' Contradicting him, I pointed to one that was very clearly marked. 'This is a museum,' he said 'not what we call a 'living church'. It is only the living churches we don't show.' ...

Royal Lancaster Gate Hotel, London W2:

I spoke recently to the priests of England and Wales about the particular need for the growth of small communities. It seems to me, and I do not think I exaggerate, that not only Catholics but all individuals need to belong to some form of small community. This we see most powerfully manifested through the family, but it is also true of what you have created. In the form of hospices, small communities have developed and emerged. I believe that small communities are the secret, not only for the future of the Church, but also for the general health of our society. Such communities, especially in times of illness and uncertainty, can be the source of new inspiration and of new hope, even when death is close at hand...

House of Commons:

Dear Friends,

It is a great honour to be with you this evening as your guest at this relaunch of the Parliamentary Friends of CAFOD. I am particularly pleased to be here together with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva. During most of the last Parliament he was Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in the Vatican. A major focus of his work there was the preparation and celebration of the Millennium Jubilee, and particularly that dimension of fostering reconciliation between rich and poor in our world that is so horrendously divided between North and South. ...

Vatican City:

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and Bishop Malcolm McMahon OP (Bishop of Nottingham) are the representatives from England and Wales at the aforementioned international meeting, which is on 'The bishop: servant of the gospel of Jesus Christ for the hope of the world'. ...

In the Times:

President Bush’s speech to Congress commits his country and its allies to an intensive and long-term campaign to root out terrorist groups of global reach. In the wake of the horrific events of last week, I can well understand the anger that people across the world feel at the tragic loss of so many innocent lives.

Certainly, we must work towards the elimination of terrorism, and those who have committed, aided and abetted this atrocity must be brought to justice. But the response must be on the basis of justice and law, rather than revenge. The instruments of international governance and law, and especially the United Nations, should be closely involved in agreeing the proper response to this atrocity, so that the entire international community will not be divided.

Westminster School:

The debate we are having this evening, as everything else these last few days, is set in a radically changed world. The terrible events in America with the massive loss of innocent life has shaken the foundations of civilised societies. It is much too soon to tell what the long term consequences will be, but it seems clear that they will be global and far reaching. We pray for those leaders on whose shoulders the decisions rest. Our topic tonight, though not in the same register of urgency or immediacy, also has a long-term importance for our world. For the advent of human cloning opens up in this century a vista of possibilities human kind has never been able to contemplate before. And at the heart of this lies a question our society has to look at again: 'What is a human embryo?'...

Trinity and All Saints College, Leeds:

Keynote Address at the National Conference of Priests 2001

I thought at first it might be difficult to find a focus for this address. It was rather like a holiday I spent with a priest friend of mine in Ireland. We were in a small town with two hotels in the square and there was a man leaning against the wall and I went up to him and asked which of the two hotels he could recommend for lunch. He looked me up and down before replying 'Well sir, it's like this, if you chose the one, you'd wish you'd chosen the other!' ...

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Conner is castaway...

Swanwick Centre, Derbyshire:

Just over a month ago I was present at what is called a 'Consistory', which is a meeting of Cardinals, called by Pope John Paul. It was a very interesting and enjoyable meeting, giving us all a chance to meet together, size each other up and give a short address if we wished. As some of you may remember, I did give just such a short address, during which I said that the ecumenical road was a long one and that it was easy for people to get discouraged. And I spoke of a pan-Christian meeting. It got a lot of publicity. I suppose I am always one to take a risk. There is that lovely passage in Luke 5 when the Lord says to Peter, 'Put out your nets - launch out into the deep'. And Peter, as you know, thought, 'It's not worth it, Lord, we've toiled all night ... but if you say so I will let down the net.' We as Christians must never cease, like Peter, to launch out into the deep, to let down the nets, when people experience the Kingdom of God preached and witnessed to by Jesus Christ. ...

Alan Little interviews Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor about Tom Winning and his legacy.

British Library, London:

Many years ago, I read Thornton Wilder's novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey which some of you may remember. It tells of the collapse of the finest bridge in Peru in 1714, and of the lives of five people who were thrown to their death in the river below. Just before the bridge collapses, a Brother Juniper is travelling past and sees the victims hurtle to their death. He says to himself:


Why did this happen to those five? If there were any plan in the universe at all, if there were any pattern in human life, surely it could be discovered mysteriously latent in those lives so suddenly cut off. Either we live by accident and we die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan...

Vatican City:

There are two matters mentioned in Novo Millennio Ineunte that seem to me to be of great importance at this moment in the life of the Church. The first concerns collegiality and the second is ecumenism. One particular expression of collegiality is the Synod of Bishops. I have to say that I have been a bishop for nearly 24 years and have not yet attended a Synod. However, speaking with many bishops from different countries, it is clear to me that it is time for serious re-examination about the manner in which the Synod operates. It should be evident to all the bishops that real debate has taken place, honest discussion and argument. Representatives of Bishops' Conferences meet every three years - but ongoing collegiality means more than that. It means that the Synod Office should be of greater importance than it is at present. It should be an organ of the Secretariat of State, equal in importance to other main dicasteries such as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for Bishops. It is an office that should be in constant communication with Bishops' Conferences throughout the world. I think this would help to establish the right balance between the ministry of Pope John Paul, the College of Bishops - never Peter without the eleven and never the eleven without Peter - and the necessary service of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia. Much more could be said and I understand the difficulties. But the challenges facing the Church are great and the Synod should and could be a more effective forum for addressing them. This would also be very encouraging for the bishops...

From the newspaper of the National Association of Catholic Families - An interview with Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor.

Transcript of an interview by Sue MacGregor.

Human life and human rights start at conception, says Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor

Law and Genetics in Counsel Magazine - The Journal of the Bar in England and Wales - April 2001

Yesterday, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales launched a leaflet called 'Vote for the Common Good'. It will soon be in every Catholic church, and on the internet www.catholic-ew.org.uk. We hope that everyone - not only Catholics - will think about what we have to say.

The Catholic Church has always been deeply involved in society. Over the years we have built thousands of schools. We have cared for people in poverty, those with marriage problems, refugees, prisoners, the homeless, and others in need. With this experience, and the Christian belief that we must love our neighbour, the Church has developed a set of social principles. Our leaflet outlines them briefly, and highlights some important issues.

21 March, 2001 at the Speaker's Residence, Houses of Parliament:


I am very grateful indeed to the Speaker of the House of Commons and Lord Carter for kindly inviting me to come and talk with you today. There is a relationship, even a partnership, between religion, or a religious leader, and the politician. Well, I suppose a Cardinal, as a Bishop, has the advantage of not having to run for office at periodic intervals (though I know people who rather wish they did!) Therefore, religious leaders can speak of human and social issues in a different context. In his farewell address, George Washington said, 'Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens'. ...

On 21 February 2001 Pope John Paul II created 44 new members of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor being among their number. Each new cardinal is presented with four gifts from the Pope: a ring, a red zucchetto (skull-cap), a red biretta (box-shaped hat), and a titular church within the walls of Rome. Pope John Paul II presented Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor with the Minor Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

Transcript of the interview between James Naughtie and the Cardinal.

Transcript of the interview with Silvia Guzzetti.

An interview by James Naughtie about cloning.

Transcript of an interview of the Archbishop by Steve Chalke.