‘A frontier is opening up for us’: Cardinal Nichols at 80
On Saturday, Nov. 8, Cardinal Vincent Nichols celebrates his 80th birthday, but he looks little different from how he did 16 years ago, when he became the Archbishop of Westminster, head of England’s most prominent diocese.
Apart, that is, from his black-rimmed glasses, which give him a veteran film director look.
Not long after Nichols celebrates his milestone birthday, the Vatican is expected to announce the name of his successor. The next Archbishop of Westminster will assume responsibility for a sprawling archdiocese that covers London north of the Thames and stretches into the county of Hertfordshire. He will also by tradition succeed Nichols as the president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Much has changed during Nichols’ tenure at Westminster. When he followed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor in 2009, the New Atheists like Richard Dawkins were in the ascendant and Catholics were on the backfoot. In his …