Cardinal Nichols: "this Synod meeting is not a referendum on the teaching of the Church"

 

At 78, Cardinal Nichols has been in post almost 3 years past his retirement date now. Over the ten years of this pontificate, Pope Francis has built a reputation for accepting the resignation of orthodox prelates immediately while letting friendly prelates linger on. (See this for example: a resignation accepted a mere month after being 75 years old is clearly meant to give a signal to other Bishops).

Nichols was appointed a member of the Congregation for Bishops on 16 December 2013 by Pope Francis. On 19 February 2014 he was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. So he appears to get on quite well with the Pope.

Nichols was Archbishop of Birmingham before being appointed Archbishop of Westminster by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. It was reported that Benedict XVI personally selected Nichols for the post after the Congregation for Bishops failed to reach a consensus, however he was passed over for the Cardinalate, reportedly because of his continued support for the controversial Soho Masses, which were a source of grave scandal. Ultimately, Cardinal Nichols was called to Rome where the head of the CDF, Archbishop Gerhard Müller took action to ensure they stopped. This was also reported in The Catholic Herald (although the page now seems to have been removed) who reported that the then Archbishop Nichols:

...said today that, while the Masses will stop, pastoral care of the community will continue at the Jesuit Farm Street church in Mayfair on Sunday evenings.

The reality was that there were so many complaints made about the scandal, and so little action was, as ever, forthcoming from the Archdiocese/ bishops, that the CDF felt it had no alternative but to take action. This lack of clear leadership seems characteristic. However it was rumoured that the change was one of the "boxes" that Nichols needed to "tick" before he was given his red cardinal's hat. You can read the full story here.

Nichols supported the effort to have Catholic adoption agencies exempted from sexual orientation regulations. His position was qualified by his statement during a BBC interview that he would not oppose adoption by a gay person that was single. Mary Ann Sieghart, a journalist, commenting for The Times on Nichols' statements on the subject, observed that "had the Catholic position been more hardline, it might have stood more of a chance." - For me, this sums up Nichol's tenure.

I have researched and documented Cardinal Nichol's history extensively on this blog.

His condemnation by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse for putting the reputation of the Church before victims.

His attacks on concerned Catholics using their voice in the public sphere.

His support of the Maltese directive over Amoris laetitia.

His pressurisation of bishops in silence on abuse in order to protect Pope Francis.

Ambiguity over second marriages

And his rise to high office in the Church.

As anyone familiar with the history of the decline of the Church in this country recognises, everything can be largely traced back to one man; Derek Worlock, appointed Archbishop of Liverpool in February of 1976. By Christmas, Worlock had produced a master-plan for the Archdiocese which was not well received by many of the senior clergy, so Worlock launched a charm offensive on the younger clergy — and Fr. Vincent Nichols became his young protégé alongside Fr. John Furnival who was ordained in 1976 and became his private secretary right up until his death in 1996.

Like his mentor Archbishop Worlock, Cardinal Nichols spent very little time working full time in a parish. His Wikipedia entry gives another impression: "Father Nichols spent a total of 14 years in the Liverpool archdiocese". In fact he spent just 3 or 4 years of this time in a parish.

I have posted a full time line here. You will note Nichol's consistent championing of the same heterodox positions we have been dealing with since the sixties in the Church in England and Wales. The same topics that are now being discussed by the Synod on Synodality this coming October.

However, as Nichols has aged, some clergy have remarked to me that he seems to display genuine faith on occasion.

His legacy is, like his latest Pastoral Letter, a story of never quite saying the right thing. Never quite saying it clearly enough or often enough for it to actually be effective. Like so many bishops today, a legacy of trying not to upset anyone, trying to keep everyone happy, and failing on all counts while the faith sinks into irrelevancy.

Perhaps, for Nichols, success is being appointed to these offices by Pope Francis. Perhaps it is not upsetting the government of the day too much. Perhaps it is walking a careful line, being a "safe pair of hands". His Pastoral Letter certainly hits all the right notes:

"In the last two years, Pope Francis has been calling us to be renewed in this mission. He wants us to rediscover our life in the Church as a communion of life with God and with one another, opened up for us through the Sacraments, those outward signs of inward grace. Furthermore, he wants us to be a sacrament for the whole world, the outward sign that leads people to the inward grace of faith in Jesus Christ, known and lived within the communion of the Church."

And yet he does clearly state:

We can be clear, then, that this Synod meeting is not an ecclesiastical UN Assembly, nor a Church parliament or convention, nor a referendum on the teaching of the Church. In the words of Pope Francis, it is to be ‘a grace-filled event, a process of healing guided by the Holy Spirit’, a setting out on a journey ‘with the Lord always coming to meet us’ (Pope Francis, 10th October 2021).

This is interesting. Although everything in this pastoral letter is carefully wrapped in what Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández would term "the flavour of Francis", this sentence stands out against those (like Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich who has openly stated Church teaching is "false") who have been specifically selected by Pope Francis to weight the synod's deliberations toward a more progressive outcome.

It could also be an indemnity policy: As Retired Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has warned, synodal consultations could lead to “frustrated expectations” when people realise the process will not lead to a radical change in Church teaching on hot-button issues such as the ordination of women.