The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Funeral of ‘gifted’ cardinal
Tributes: More than 1,000 attend mass for Archbishop of Westminster
The former Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has been remembered as a “gifted man” at his funeral, attended by more than 1,000 people.
Leading figures from political and religious life were part of the congregation for the requiem mass at a packed Westminster Cathedral.
Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, former Irish president Mary McAleese and the Duke of Norfolk, representing the Prince of Wales, all attended.
Cardinal MurphyO’Connor, who became leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales in March 2000 before retiring from his role in 2009, died on September 1 having suffered from cancer.
His death prompted tributes from Pope Francis and former prime minister Tony Blair, neither of whom attended the funeral on Wednesday as they were together at the pontiff ’s weekly general audience in Rome.
The cardinal was “a priest to his fingertips” and “supremely confident in his calling”, Archbishop of Cardiff George Stack said as he gave a homily.
He told those gathered: “He was a gifted man who would have made a success of whatever career he chose.”
But he learned “a huge lesson”, the archbishop said, in an apparent reference to a controversy faced by Cardinal MurphyO’Connor around how the church handled claims of child sex abuse.
The cardinal, while Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, decided to move Father Michael Hill to the chaplaincy at Gatwick Airport in 1985 when he was warned that the priest was a threat to children.
Hill was jailed in 2002 after pleading guilty to indecent assault against three boys, including the abuse of a teenager with learning difficulties who went to the airport’s chapel after missing a flight.
Explaining the appointment to Gatwick Airport, the cardinal said he had received “conflicting psychiatric reports” and believed Hill would not have access to children. He apologised on several occasions to Hill’s victims, saying he had made a “grave mistake” and that he had been “naive and ignorant” in his handling of allegations of sex abuse involving priests. Archbishop Stack told mourners: “He acknowledged his mistakes. He made no excuses. He said the most difficult words of all, ‘I’m sorry’.
“He learned a huge lesson and proceeded to establish the most robust safeguarding mechanism possible, a model for other institutions. Humility and action were part of the robe that he wore.”
The Nolan report, commissioned by the cardinal in 2001 and drawn up by the retired Roman Catholic law lord, led to a stringent set of guidelines to prevent child abuse in the lic Church in England and Wales.