Cardinal Vincent Nichols

Born in Crosby, Liverpool, on 8 November 1945, Vincent Nichols studied for the priesthood at the Venerable English College in Rome from 1963 to 1970, gaining licences in philosophy and theology at the Gregorian University. He was ordained priest in Rome on 21 December 1969 for the Archdiocese of Liverpool.

He then studied an MA degree in theology at Manchester University between 1970 and 1971. In 1971 he was appointed assistant priest in St Mary’s Parish, Wigan and chaplain to the Sixth Form College and St Peter’s High School. In 1974 he studied at Loyola University in Chicago and was awarded an M.Ed. In 1975 he was appointed to St Anne’s parish in Toxteth, Liverpool with particular responsibility for education.

In 2000, Bishop Nichols was appointed Archbishop of Birmingham. In 2009 he was installed as the 11th Archbishop of Westminster following the retirement of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. He was elected President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales by unanimous acclamation on 30 April 2009.

In 2014, he was appointed by Pope Francis to lead the work of the Church against human trafficking and modern slavery. He is President of the Santa Marta Group, which gathers together Catholic bishops, police chiefs and government officials from over 30 countries around the world in a partnership to work towards the eradication of these twin scourges. On 23 Mary 2018, along with the Santa Marta Group, he received the UN Path to Peace Award for his work combatting human trafficking and modern slavery.

He currently serves as a Vice-President of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences. As Archbishop of Westminster, he is also Patron of the Bellarmine Institute. He is patron of a number of Catholic charities including the Passage and the Cardinal Hume Centre.