Cardinal Hume, died in London today
Cardinal Basil Hume, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, has died at a hospital in London. He was 76 and had been ill for some time with abdominal cancer. In April the Cardinal announced that he had terminal cancer and said that it was not in its early stages. Father Kieran Conry, a spokesman for the Catholic media office, said that Cardinal Hume died at 5.25 this evening. His newphew, William Charles, his private secretary, Father James Curry, and a personal friend, Father Liam Kelly,were at his bedside.
The Taoiseach said that he learned with "deep regret" of Cardinal Hume's death. He said that "Cardinal Hume was a kind and gentle man, who in his own quiet and unassuming way, led the Catholic Church in England and Wales for the past 23 years". President McAleese described him as a man of deep faith and humanity from whom integrity radiated. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said that Queen Elizabeth was deeply saddened by news of the Cardinal's death and that she would remember him for his outstanding contribution to the Christian life of the country. The British Prime Minister,Tony Blair, described the Cardinal as goodness personified, a true holy man.
Basil Hume was generally regarded as a charismatic leader with a receptive and open mind. He was Benedictine who will probably be best remembered for bringing Catholicism over the past two decades into the mainstream of British national life. Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1923, he was educated at Ampleforth - the leading Catholic public school where he later became abbot - and at Oxford university. He was ordained in 1950 and became Cardinal in 1976. Basil Hume played no small part in the release of the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven. He campaigned vigorously on behalf of Irish victims of miscarriages of justice with two former home secretaries and two former law lords who formed what became known as the Cardinal's Commission. His involvement in getting those miscarriages of justice overturned had begun in earnest when he first visited Guiseppe Colon - father of Gerry Colon - in prison.
In recent years - as the row grew within the Church of England over the ordination of women priests - Basil Hume worked with the Archbishop of Canterbury to help avert a worsening crisis, while at the same time skilfully overseeing the conversion of a stream of high profile Anglicans to the Catholic faith.
