Cardinal Vincent Nichols
Cardinal Vincent Nichols held the solemn requiem of the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Most Valuable Blood, on April 21, 2025 in London, England.
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Rome – The highest official of the Catholic Church in England and Wales as Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, prepares to enter his first papal council. He said the task of choosing a new pope was “fairly” and expected a reflection when the Cardinal gathered in the Vatican's Sistine Church.
“When these doors are closed, all the speculation and ways about the opposition, you know, conservative about liberalism and all this stuff – that will be done, and there will be more reflections.”
Nichols, 79, was appointed cardinal by Pope Francis in February 2014. He is part of the most diverse Cardinal College in the history of the church. Like Nichols, most of the voted cardinals (under 80) were appointed by Francis.
“I met the cardinal of Rwanda this morning…what he wants to tell us! About a country like Rwanda and the country it lives in and everything the church is facing now. The cardinal of Myanmar comes from Burma, Burma…he is under a military dictatorship. So we have to listen.” “Every place, in the story, in the account, they make up the mosaics of churches around the world.”
Cardinal Vincent Nichols received his Biretta from Pope Francis on February 22, 2014 at Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican city of Vatican.
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He said the days of arriving in Rome at the meeting were an opportunity for the Cardinals to listen to each other’s stories.
Nichols also acknowledges the importance of listening to survivors of sexual abuse in the church. He shared that he has been meeting victims for the past 20 years and has called on the church to bring in outsiders to help them.
“I can't get rid of the pain. I can try to understand it,” Nichols said. “Paraconically, the church is the last place they can help immediately because we are the perpetrators.”
Although Nichols believes he will not come out of the meeting as the next leader of the Catholic Church, he said those who do so will make the ultimate sacrifice.
“I think being chosen as a kind of mini death,” Nichols told NPR. “The person who was chosen will never come home again. They will lose all the last privacy relic. Then, his life will be taken over – for good purposes…but it's a total surrender.”
During one meeting, Casa Santa Marta completely isolated the cardinal, and only the nuns who ran the house where Pope Francis lived joined. They are cut off, including TV, radio and cell phones. Nichols said he could pass without a podcast, but missing football results can be a bit difficult.
“I'm not quite sure what's going on with my phone… They might take them out of us, I don't know. Or they might block the signal. I don't know. We'll find it. But I find it's my alarm. I'm worried I might sleep (on the thing)… And your phone is praying on it, and we'll be fun to use it.”
Nichols was told that the average length of a meeting was two or three days, but it could be used continuously until two-thirds of the cardinals participated in the new pope. He said he packed a few pairs of socks just in case.