Similar Shunting in Westminster and Birmingham

After presenting his mandatory resignation as Archbishop of Westminster shortly before his 75th birthday and being asked by Pope Benedict to stay in place for the time being, my "favourite" Cardinal, Cormac MURPHY O'Connor, was finally granted his well-earned retirement in 2009, to be replaced by native Liverpudlian Vincent Nichols, until then Archbishop of Birmingham and himself a former auxiliary in Westminster. In fact it was he who celebrated the requiem mass for the late Cardinal Basil Hume in 1999 and served as Apostolic Administrator of the archdiocese (which cutely prefers to call itself a "diocese") during the ensuing interregnum until Cormac's arrival.

It will be interesting to await Archbishop Nichols' theo-political development at Westminster, since he has been observed to have become decidedly more conservative during his stay in Birmingham.

In October came the return half of the swap, as Westminster's Auxiliary Bishop Bernard Longley was appointed Archbishop of Birmingham. The following "family" photo, taken at Archbishop Longley's installation in December 2009,

shows the new Archbishop with crozier surrounded by (from left to right) Archbishop Faustino Sainz Muñoz, Papal Nuncio to Great Britain; Auxiliary Bishop William Kenney CP; Archbishop Vincent Nichols; Auxiliary Bishop David McGough; retired Auxiliary Bishop Philip Pargeter; Cardinal Cormac; and Bishop Kieran Conry, former administrator of St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham, and Cormac's successor in 2000 as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton.