Faith Features

The head of the Catholic Church in Britain has been saying farewell to the people of Hertfordshire as he prepares to retire at the age of 77.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor celebrated a Thanksgiving Mass at the Church of St Alban and St Stephen in St Albans, and looked back at some of the changes that have taken place during his ministry.

“In many of the parishes that I go round to [in the Diocese of Westminster] have 20 or 30 different ethnic communities and what unites them is their Catholic faith.”

Challenges

He also earmarked the main challenges that he felt his successor would be facing.

“The first is to develop with the priests a vibrant and strong Christian community and if I can put it this way – strong and brave. You’ve got to be brave and courageous in this country today to be Christian, to swim against the stream and yet be a part of this country.

“The other challenge is not to look inwards but at what we can contribute in this country, to belief in a loving God and what we can contribute to helping people have respect for all things that we care about – human dignity, family and those who are under-privileged. I think that the Catholic Church and indeed other churches as well, have a huge amount to contribute.

"I think that the Catholic Church in this country is a very important place, together with our fellow Christians, in giving a witness to Christianity, here in our secular society" he added.

"And I think that the strength of the Parish communities, like we have here in Hertfordshire is very important."