Archbishop’s final message: I am at peace
I have no fear of what is to come, said Cardinal Murphy-o’connor, who has died, aged 85
THE former Archbishop of Westminster, who died yesterday aged 85, said he had “no fear of what is to come” in a final message before his death.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-o’connor died at 3.35pm after falling ill last month, the Church announced.
In a final message, issued through Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the current Archbishop, the cardinal said he was “at peace and have no fear of what is to come”. He added: “I have received many blessings in my life, especially from my family and friends. I thank God for the many priests, religious and lay faithful who have helped and sustained me in my Episcopal life.
“Nor should I forget the many Anglican and Free Church colleagues whose friendship I have valued very much.
“Above all, as I now commend myself to the loving mercy of God, I ask them all to pray for me as I remember and pray for them.”
The cardinal, who became leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales in March 2000 before retiring in 2009, was admitted to hospital last month suffering from cancer.
An outspoken figure, opposing both birth control and abortion, in 2007 he backed a change in the law to reduce the abortion limit from 24 weeks.
He was installed as the 10th Archbishop of Westminster in March 2000 and the following year was created a cardinal by Pope John Paul II.
He admitted in 2015 he was ashamed of the way he handled a sex abuse case concerning a Catholic priest in the Eighties, when he was Bishop of Arundel and Brighton.
In 2002, he apologised for the abuse carried out by Michael Hill, whom he appointed to be chaplain of Gatwick Airport in 1985 in the knowledge that he had previously abused children.
He subsequently set up an independent review on child protection in the Catholic Church, chaired by Lord Nolan. This led to the establishment of a new office to oversee the protection of children and vulnerable adults. The head of the Anglican Church, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was among those who paid tribute to the cardinal, saying people saw in him “something of Christ”.
He said: “Cormac was a bishop for four decades but was first and foremost a servant of God and a disciple of Jesus. His humility, sense and holiness made him a leader of immense impact.”
Tony Blair, with whom he clashed on many social issues before Mr Blair became a Catholic in 2007, said the cardinal “led a life of commitment, dedication and compassion. But he also led a life of joy. He was a lovely person to be around with a great sense of humour and the sharpest of wits”.
‘I thank God for the many priests, religious and lay faithful who have helped me in my episcopal life’
CARDINAL CORMAC MURPHY-O’CONNOR, the former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, who has died aged 85, was a noted ecumenist who worked for closer links with other churches; as a bishop he won the affection and respect of many with his warm personality and wit, and for his pastoral gifts.
In March 2000, soon after becoming Archbishop, he used an address in Westminster Abbey to challenge the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches to press towards full unity. He also forged strong links with the Methodists. In 2002 he called for the abolition of the 1701 Act of Settlement which prevents Roman Catholics from ascending the throne or marrying heirs to the English Crown.
In 1983, as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, he became co-chairman, with the Anglican Bishop Mark Santer, of the second Anglican and Roman Catholic International Commission (Arcic II), which sought to work towards the unity of the two Churches. From 1983 to 2000 he was also Chairman of the Committee for Christian Unity and from 1994 to 2000 he chaired the Catholic bishops’ Department for Mission and Unity.
He became close friends with Bishop Santer and with the Anglican Bishop of Chichester, Dr Eric Kemp. The latter credited Murphy-o’connor with a scheme whereby Church leaders as a body descended on Sussex locations to demonstrate ecumenism in action.
In 1999 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, awarded Murphy-o’connor a Lambeth Doctorate in Divinity in recognition of his work for Christian unity. In 2002 the Queen invited him to preach at a service at Sandringham; he was the first Catholic bishop since 1680 to deliver a sermon to an English monarch.
But his success in the ecumenical field was only moderate. When the Church of England’s General Synod voted to allow women to be priests, Murphy-o’connor found himself in a difficult position, since Catholic teaching clearly ruled out female ordination. None the less, he smoothed the way for the reception of Anglican priests who left their ministry in order “to swim the Tiber” and become Catholic priests.
Having spent 22 years as the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Murphy-o’connor brought considerable experience to the role of Archbishop of Westminster, but he also inherited an unresolved matter regarding his handling of a paedophile priest, Fr Michael Hill, convicted in 1997 of abusing young boys, and this cast a shadow over the first few years of his episcopacy.
It emerged that after complaints about Hill in the early 1980s, Murphy-o’connor had withdrawn his licence to work in parishes of the Arundel and Brighton diocese. The priest was sent for therapy, but in 1985 Murphy-o’connor appointed him chaplain to Gatwick Airport. While there, Hill committed further acts of abuse and was brought to justice. In 2000 a BBC reporter leaked legal documents about compensation claims for Hill’s victims. This intensified calls in the media for Murphyo’connor to resign.
He made a full public apology for the way in which he had dealt with the case, but defended himself and the Church by saying that less had been known about the nature of paedophilia in the 1980s. A judge from Chichester Crown Court remarked that Murphy-o’connor had been ahead of his time in sending Hill for therapy.
In late 2000 Murphy-o’connor set up an independent commission on child protection under Lord Nolan. This resulted in the establishment of a new independent office to oversee the protection of children and vulnerable adults. The Tablet described it as “making the Church as paedophileproof as possible”.
However, in November 2002 Hill faced a further prison term and there was a renewed onslaught from the media. Though doubts were expressed in some Catholic circles, letters and comments from most expressed support. The controversy rumbled on for another year. Murphy-o’connor came out badly from an interview on Radio 4’s Today programme, in which he was accused of having misled the public. The BBC later admitted bias in an apology to the Catholic journalist Clifford Longley, after he accused them of a “serious abuse of impartiality” over a discussion on the programme.
Police investigations failed to find evidence of malpractice by Murphyo’connor. But he was already at a disadvantage in following the serenely holy Cardinal Basil Hume, and the episode weakened his position in the eyes of the country and of some fellow Catholics. Such was his subsequent rehabilitation, however, that in 2008 he returned to the Today programme in the role of guest editor.
Cormac Murphy-o’connor was born at Reading on August 24 1932, the youngest son of middle-class Irish immigrants. The family were dominant business people in Cork, and one Murphy-o’connor in the 19th century became the first Bishop of Hyderabad. Cormac’s father Patrick George Murphy-o’connor, the son of a vintner, became a doctor. He married Ellen Cuddigan and they emigrated to Liverpool before buying a house and practice in Reading, where their children, five sons and a daughter, were born.
All the sons were keen rugby players. The eldest, James, also a doctor, played for Ireland. Three sons became priests in the Portsmouth diocese.
His father persuaded the Presentation Brothers in Ireland to open a school in Reading and it was here that Cormac received his early education before going on to Prior Park College, Bath. Aged about three, when asked what he would like to be, Cormac replied: “A doctor or Pope.”
By his teens, however, he was set on the priesthood. He fancied the Westminster diocese, but the local bishop, Archbishop John King, insisted he join his brothers, Patrick and Brian, at the English College, Rome, to serve Portsmouth diocese. Cormac attained degrees in Philosophy and Theology at the Gregorian University and was ordained in 1956.
His first appointment was assistant priest at Corpus Christi parish, in Portsmouth’s North End. Many parishioners worked in the dockyards and Murphy-o’connor later referred to the “constant feeling of insecurity” he encountered. But he pitched in, organising a youth club and pilgrimages to Lourdes, and became firm friends with the people. In 1963 he moved to the Sacred Heart, Fareham, where he and a fellow curate started small “faith sharing groups”. The profound effect it had on him led to later schemes at Arundel and Brighton and in Westminster.
In 1966 the new Bishop of Portsmouth, Derek Worlock, appointed Murphyo’connor his private secretary. Worlock was keen to implement the decrees of the Second Vatican Council and Murphyo’connor was credited with setting up the country’s first pastoral centre dedicated to training lay people. During this period he was the diocesan vocations director and also assisted Monsignor Michael Buckley in setting up the first National Conference of Priests in 1970.
He became parish priest at the Immaculate Conception, Portswood, Southampton, then in 1971 he was appointed Rector of the English College in Rome. In the aftermath of the Vatican Council he brought reconciliation, discipline and normality into the life of the college, encouraging the seminarians to enjoy their life in Italy. During his period as Rector, guests included the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Donald Coggan, whose visit to Pope Paul VI in 1977 was a landmark in ecumenical relations.
In December that year Murphy-o’connor was appointed Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, a young diocese where he worked to establish an atmosphere of love and trust between bishop, priests and lay people. His concern for priests in his diocese also made a mark. When one priest had to cancel an important meeting with Murphy-o’connor because his mother was dying, the bishop delayed the meeting and went instead to the mother’s bedside.
In 1992 the diocese became the first in England to adopt the “Renew” programme, which sought to develop parish communities through group meetings involving prayer, liturgy and scripture study. Although the response was mixed, almost half the practising Catholics in the diocese became involved.
In the late 1980s, when Cardinal Hume, a Benedictine monk, had mooted returning from Westminster to the cloister, Murphyo’connor was mentioned as his most likely successor. By the time he was appointed, however, he was 67.
He used the occasion of his appointment, in February 2000, to attack “the culture of consumerism” and called on Christians to draw people back to God. In November he was elected President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and the following year Pope John Paul II created him a cardinal.
Murphy-o’connor made pastoral and spiritual renewal of the diocese his primary goal, and to this end in 2003 he introduced the “At Your Word, Lord” programme to Westminster. As in Arundel and Brighton, responses differed, but Murphy-o’connor weathered the criticisms and most parishes embraced the programme.
Known as Cormac, Murphy-o’connor was never a hugely efficient administrator and was inclined to make impulsive decisions. He had to back down on a plan to move a hostel for homeless near Westminster Cathedral to make way for diocesan staff. But his clergy found him approachable. They nicknamed him “Val Doonican”, but his soft Hibernian burr was misleading. Indeed his public school background and Irish roots helped him to bridge the twin strands of English Catholic culture.
Murphy-o’connor engaged in a number of ethical and political issues. He was opposed to sanctions against Iraq in the period before Saddam Hussein was removed. In 2002, when war was threatened, he insisted there should be a war against world poverty, not Iraq. When, in September 2000, a court ordered the separation of Siamese twin girls in an attempt to save one of the girls, against the wishes of the Catholic parents, he said it set a legal precedent against the right to life. In 2003 he accused the government of being obsessed with foxhunting when unborn human lives were at stake through medical experimentation.
In 2007 he clashed with New Labour over the government’s plan to force Catholic adoption agencies to comply with new gay rights legislation. But he got on well personally with Tony Blair, and he received him into the Church soon after Blair left Downing Street.
He submitted his resignation as Archbishop on his 75th birthday, as canon law required, in the summer of 2007, but was asked to continue by Pope Benedict XVI until a replacement could be found, which was not until April 2009. He then moved to a flat near the Catholic parish of Chiswick, where he would often celebrate one of the Sunday Masses.
In his retirement he wrote a volume of memoirs, An English Spring (2015), which were reported to have been vetted before publication by Church authorities; perhaps as a result, they were less than revelatory. In private conversation, he was frequently more forthcoming, particularly over a second bottle of wine.
He was widely credited, along with some other English-speaking Cardinals, with being one of the chief movers behind the scenes who brought about the election of Pope Francis in 2013, despite being past the voting age and unable to take part in the Conclave. Pope Francis was reputed to telephone him for advice.
Murphy-o’connor was a keen golfer, a follower of sport generally, and an accomplished pianist, who once performed a piano concerto with full orchestra.