Cardinal's Homilies

This night, in the words of the Gospel of St Luke, we are summoned by the angel to the crib, in the town of David, in Bethlehem. We are told that there we will find 'news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people'. To emphasise the ...Read more

'Jesus is the true face of God's mercy.'  These are words to keep very much in mind as we prepare to welcome the birth of Jesus, on this Feast of Christmas. This evening, in a wonderful way, we are led more deeply towards the moment of t...Read more

As many of you will know, credit for the introduction of the Christmas Crib goes to St Francis of Assisi. In the town of Gubbio, in 1223, he introduced a living pageant of the birth of Jesus, with real animals and, in it suggested, a living baby. ...Read more

Today is Today this joy of anticipation is enriched by the opening of our Door of Mercy and the beginning of the Year of Mercy, called for by Pope Francis. The reading from his Papal Bull, which we have just heard, spells out so clearly the inte...Read more

In the mid 1990s, George Stack, Administrator of Westminster Cathedral, invited Fr Augustine Hoey to live and work at the Cathedral. Later, as Archbishop, he wrote:  'This was one of the wisest decisions of my time as Administrator. A delightful...Read more

This evening we come to make an irrevocable act, the consecration of this stone, making it holy, setting it apart for ever. This is done, by the work of the Holy Spirit, at the request of the Church made through the mouth of Jesus, himself. Thi...Read more

It is my great joy, as St Edmund's College Patron and Visitor, to join you in prayer at this Solemn Vespers initiating celebrations for the centenary of the Chapel, unique among contemporary Cambridge college chapels in being the only Catholic f...Read more

Given at the Chapel of the Chelsea Pensioners on Remembrance Sunday 8 November 2015. One hundred years ago, not today but at the beginning of May, John McCrae stood in the field of the second battle of Ypres, looking at the place where his fri...Read more

Last Sunday I joined thousands of people in St Peter's Square waiting to receive the blessing of Pope Francis. I was surrounded by families: babies asleep in prams, young children crawling on the cobbles, older children entertaining each other, te...Read more

Given at the Red Mass on 1 October 2015 at Westminster Cathedral. 'But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.' The fulfilment of this promi...Read more

Today we leave Galilee and go to Jerusalem. That is fitting for this Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of Jesus. We shall celebrate Vespers of the Feast in the very place were his death took place. We will be able to go to Golgotha. It is from ...Read more

Mgr Walter Drumm died peacefully and quietly, on 17 August. Today we gather to commend his soul to our Heavenly Father, seeking gracious mercy for him, through the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus, which we celebrate in this funeral Ma...Read more

Every now and then, in my mind's eye or on TV, there appears the image of Stanbrook Abbey, in Worcestershire, of course. The sweeping drive, the majestic chapel, the forbidding parlours, the sun-kissed gardens and apparently endless central heatin...Read more

Today we are so glad and honoured to be together at this wonderful shrine of Our Blessed Lady. Here we touch something that runs deep in the Catholic veins of this country. Here we can sense why we refer to England as Mary's Dowry. And, of course,...Read more