Pope Leo XIV Names New Archbishop For Westminster

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Richard Moth as the new Archbishop of Westminster, the most prominent Catholic figure in England and Wales, the church announced on Friday.

Moth, 67, will formally replace the retiring Cardinal Vincent Nichols – who held the role leading the two nations’ estimated 3.8 million Catholics for 16 years – on February 14.

Nichols, who turned 80 last month, had faced criticism latterly in his tenure following a damning 2020 report into longstanding allegations of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

It found he “seemingly put the reputation of the church” above his duty to victims and had shown “no acknowledgement of any personal responsibility to lead or influence change”.

Friday’s announcement came the day after the Vatican said Leo had accepted the resignation of New York’s conservative Archbishop Timothy Dolan, in a significant shift for the church in the United States.

The Pope named a little-known pro-migrant bishop, Ronald Hicks, from his native Chicago, to replace Dolan.

At a London press conference featuring both Moth and Nichols, the archbishop-elect welcomed his appointment, saying he was “pinching myself” and “massively grateful” to Leo.

“I think we’re at an interesting moment in the life of the church in this country,” he added of Britain’s second-largest Christian denomination, behind Anglicanism.

“We do speak about a quiet revival,” he noted of reports that the number of Catholics in the UK is rising. “I would say I’m quietly cautious.”

Asked about the bitter debate about immigration currently raging in the UK, Moth struck a conciliatory tone, noting he would “continue to remind society that everybody, wherever they come from, has something that they contribute”.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the decades-spanning sex abuse scandal, he vowed that the church would remain “committed” to safeguarding, including offering victims the chance to meet him.

“I certainly am, and certainly committed to offering that opportunity to survivors.”

Born in Zambia in 1958 and raised in Kent, southeast England, Moth held senior roles in the London diocese of Southwark before being ordained bishop of the armed forces in 2009.

An avid horse rider and walker, he has been the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton since 2015, while chairing the church’s social justice department and serving as liaison bishop for prisons.

Nichols praised Moth as someone of “many gifts and considerable episcopal experience”.

AFP