64 Facts About Vincent Nichols

Vincent Gerard Nichols was born on 8 November 1945 and is a Roman Catholic British prelate who has served as Archbishop of Westminster since 2009.

Vincent Nichols was the former Archbishop of Birmingham from 2000 to 2009 and is the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

Vincent Nichols was elevated into the College of Cardinals on 22 February 2014.

On 8 November 2020, Nichols offered his customary resignation to Pope Francis on his 75th birthday.

Vincent Gerard Nichols was born on 8 November 1945 in Crosby, Lancashire to Henry Joseph and Mary Nichols, both teachers.

Vincent Nichols said that he felt a calling to the priesthood as a teenager.

Vincent Nichols attended St Peter and Paul's Junior School on Liverpool Road, Crosby before joining St Mary's College, Crosby, from 1956 to 1963.

Vincent Nichols was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of Liverpool on 21 December 1969.

Vincent Nichols then served as assistant pastor at St Mary's Church, Wigan, as well as chaplain to St John Rigby College, Wigan, and St Peter's Catholic High School, Wigan.

Vincent Nichols received a MEd degree from Loyola University Chicago in 1974 and was assigned to St Anne's Church in Edge Hill in 1975.

Father Vincent Nichols spent a total of 14 years in the Liverpool archdiocese.

Vincent Nichols served as General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales from 1984 to 1993.

Vincent Nichols was chairman of the Catholic Education Service from 1998.

On 5 November 1991, Vincent Nichols was appointed Auxiliary bishop of Westminster and Titular bishop of Othona by Pope John Paul II.

Vincent Nichols received his episcopal consecration on 24 January 1992 from Cardinal Basil Hume, OSB, with Archbishop Derek Worlock and Bishop Alan Clark serving as co-consecrators, at Westminster Cathedral.

Vincent Nichols selected as his episcopal motto: Fortis Ut Mors Dilectio, meaning, "Love Is Strong As Death" Song of Solomon 8:6.

Vincent Nichols was appointed to the finance advisory committee of the National Catholic Fund in 1994 and to the CBCEW's Committee for the Roman Colleges in 1995, and became Episcopal Liaison of the CBCEW for the National Conference of Diocesan Financial Secreatries in 1996.

Vincent Nichols represented the European bishops at the November 1998 Synod of Bishops from Oceania, and was a special secretary at the Synod of Bishops for Europe in September 1999.

Vincent Nichols was celebrant of the Requiem Mass for Cardinal Hume in 1999.

On 15 February 2000, Vincent Nichols was appointed the eighth Archbishop of Birmingham by Pope John Paul II, succeeding the French-born Maurice Couve de Murville.

Vincent Nichols received the pallium from Pope John Paul II in Rome on 29 June 2000, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, at the same time as Cormac Murphy-O'Connor received his as Metropolitan Archbishop of Westminster.

In 2001, Vincent Nichols became chairman of the management board of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults.

Vincent Nichols is a patron of the International Young Leaders Network based at Blackfriars, Oxford.

Vincent Nichols undertakes at least one visitation of each of these seminaries in each academic year.

Vincent Nichols provided the commentary for the BBC's coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

In 2008 Vincent Nichols oversaw the opening of Newman's grave in Worcestershire, a practice usual in such cases, undertaken with a view to translating Newman's remains to the Birmingham Oratory.

Likewise as archbishop, Vincent Nichols was Chairman of the Governing Body of Newman University College.

Vincent Nichols has written two books: Promise of Future Glory and Missioners; and it was he who set up the "Walk with Me" programme, which sought to bring people together in spiritual accompaniment through the seasons of the Church's year.

Vincent Nichols was appointed the eleventh Archbishop of Westminster by Pope Benedict XVI on 3 April 2009, and solemnly installed on 21 May 2009.

Vincent Nichols succeeded Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 in 2007.

Vincent Nichols received his second pallium from Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on 29 June 2009, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

Vincent Nichols was appointed a member of the Congregation for Bishops on 16 December 2013 by Pope Francis.

Vincent Nichols wrote to Pope Francis offering his resignation as archbishop as of his 75th birthday on 8 November 2020, as is customary; however, Pope Francis asked him to continue in his functions.

On 12 January 2014 Pope Francis announced that Vincent Nichols would be created a cardinal at the consistory of the Church held on 22 February 2014.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols was formally elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals by Pope Francis on 22 February 2014, receiving the traditional red biretta and gold ring during a ceremony in Saint Peter's Basilica.

Vincent Nichols was created Cardinal-Priest of Santissimo Redentore e Sant'Alfonso in Via Merulana.

On 8 September 2022, Vincent Nichols took part in the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

Vincent Nichols gave thanks to Elizabeth II's "commitment to the Commonwealth throughout her reign", during a three-minute intercession.

Vincent Nichols' presence represented the second time that the Archbishop of Westminster participated in a Royal funeral, in modern British history.

On 6 May 2023, Vincent Nichols participated in the Coronation of King Charles III.

Vincent Nichols' presence represented the first time that a Catholic prelate participated in the coronation of a British monarch since Elizabeth I was crowned by Catholic Bishop Owen Oglethorpe at the time of the Protestant Reformation.

Once considered to be liberal, Vincent Nichols was described by Damian Thompson of The Daily Telegraph as having moved to more conservative positions.

Vincent Nichols said, "It gives us an experience of being together in a place that turns things on their head a bit".

Vincent Nichols defended the ban of the church on Communion for the divorced and remarried.

Vincent Nichols hoped that the Synod on the Family would clarify the teachings of the church on the Eucharist.

Vincent Nichols said that although usually one partakes in Communion based on one's own conscience, the divorced remarried publicly defied church teachings.

Vincent Nichols, according to the report, protected the reputation of the Church rather than protecting victims and lacked compassion towards victims.

Vincent Nichols played a prominent role in producing the 1996 CBCEW document, Common Good and Catholic Social Teaching, in which the English Catholic bishops condemned the rhetoric of greed in a move interpreted as an endorsement of New Labour.

Vincent Nichols argued that the Sikh community had acted in a "reasonable and measured way" in representing their concerns.

In February 2024 Vincent Nichols announced that the traditional mass planned for the Paschal Triduum, that had annually been held at St Mary Moorfields, would be canceled.

Vincent Nichols's position was qualified by his statement during a BBC interview that he would not oppose adoption by a gay person that was single.

In 2012 Vincent Nichols condemned same-sex marriage proposals, calling it an "undemocratic, Orwellian shambles".

Vincent Nichols told teachers at Catholic schools that they could not marry divorced people, enter into civil unions or same-sex marriages and yet retain their jobs.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols arranged for the LGBT community to move to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street in nearby Mayfair and attended their first Mass there in 2013.

Vincent Nichols mobilised over 2,000 Catholic school headteachers in his campaign and the plan was eventually dropped.

In October 2010 Vincent Nichols made a defence of Catholic prison chaplaincy in a speech at HM Prison Brixton in London.

Vincent Nichols criticised suggestions that amid budget cuts the state should only fund a single "generic chaplaincy" in British prisons.

Vincent Nichols said that although the pub was originally called the Windsor Castle, the name the Cardinal has a better historical connection to the area and that "The reason why it was changed was because of the great impact that Cardinal Manning had on the life of London".

Vincent Nichols has urged Catholic academics, charities, politicians, theologians and lay Catholics to work towards the "Church for the poor" that Pope Francis advocated.

Vincent Nichols stressed the need for fair wages, stating the private sector, the social sector, the state and all who have people depending on them for a livelihood are challenged by this.

Vincent Nichols claimed that people are risking "destitution" and that the administration of social security has become steadily more "punitive", forcing people to rely on food banks and leaving them with nothing if forms are filled in incorrectly.

Vincent Nichols is the patron of the Passage, a day centre for homeless people founded by the Daughters of Charity near Westminster Cathedral.

Vincent Nichols stressed the Church, through its maritime mission agency, the Apostleship of the Sea, would continue to support their faith and welfare needs.

On 3 November 2016, it was reported that Cardinal Vincent Nichols officially acknowledged that the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales had pressed young, unmarried mothers in the country to put their children up for adoption in agencies linked to the Catholic Church throughout the decades following World War II and offered an apology.