1. Basil Hume was a priest of the Benedictine order and was made a cardinal in 1977.
22 Facts About Basil Hume
1. 2.
From 1979, Basil Hume served as president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.
3.
Basil Hume held these appointments until his death from cancer in 1999.
4.
Basil Hume's father was a Protestant and a cardiac physician from Scotland, and his mother the French Catholic daughter of an army officer.
5.
Basil Hume was a pupil at the independent school Ampleforth College between the ages of 13 and 18.
6.
Basil Hume received the habit and the monastic name of "Basil".
7.
Basil Hume then returned to Ampleforth to teach religious education, history, French and German.
8.
Basil Hume served as head of the school's Department of Modern Languages before becoming the abbot of Ampleforth in 1963.
9.
Basil Hume was a lifelong fan of jogging, squash and Newcastle United FC He once described getting an autograph from Jackie Milburn, the Newcastle United legend, as one of his "proudest achievements".
10.
On 9 February 1976, Basil Hume was appointed Archbishop of Westminster, the highest ranking prelate in the Catholic Church in England and Wales, by Pope Paul VI.
11.
Basil Hume was not considered the most obvious choice for the post of archbishop as he had lacked visible pastoral experience of running a diocese and, as the first monk to hold the post since the 1850 restoration of the English hierarchy, he was seen to be something of an outsider.
12.
Basil Hume was created Cardinal-Priest of San Silvestro in Capite by Paul VI in the consistory of 24 May 1976.
13.
Basil Hume was one of the cardinal electors in the conclaves of August and October 1978.
14.
Early in his time as archbishop, Basil Hume found himself involved in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
15.
Basil Hume visited Derry in April 1981 and stated in a letter to Edward Daly, the Bishop of Derry, that "a hunger strike to death is a form of violence to one's self and violence leads to violence".
16.
Basil Hume was seen as moderate in his theological positions, trying to please both liberals and conservatives.
17.
Basil Hume had previously read the Epistle at the enthronement of Robert Runcie as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1980.
18.
In 1998, Basil Hume asked John Paul II for permission to retire, expressing the wish to return to Ampleforth and devote his last years to peace and solitude, fly fishing and following his beloved Newcastle United Football Club.
19.
Basil Hume was the last Archbishop of Westminster to employ a gentiluomo.
20.
In 1984, Basil Hume nominated Jimmy Savile as a member of the Athenaeum, a gentlemen's club in London's Pall Mall.
21.
Basil Hume was regularly named Britain's most popular religious figure in opinion polls and this was attributed by some to the great humility and warmth with which he treated everyone he met, regardless of their religion or background.
22.
Basil Hume wrote To Be a Pilgrim, Searching for God, The Mystery of Love and Footprints of the Northern Saints.