Named last week as the new Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols will have to employ his spiritual gifts and tactical skills to the full in his new post. His work may reflect the influence of two mentors, Basil Hume and Derek Worlock, when he becomes the country's leading Catholic

The bright and personable priest from Merseyside, who as General Secretary ruled the roost at the Bishops' Conference headquarters at Eccleston Square for eight years from the mid-1980s, was seen by many Catholics at the time as a breath of fresh air.

Renowned for his openness and pastoral concerns, he was also an espouser of liberal causes. But while his stock was high among more liberal Catholics, the decision-makers in Rome were said to be less impressed. His mentor, the Archbishop of Liverpool, Derek Worlock, watched this in frustration. He reputedly took "Fr Vin" to one side and told him: "We can't get you into the hierarchy if you carry on like this. You have to make yourself more favourable to Rome."

Vincent Nichols' critics suggest this explains why he became more overtly orthodox when he became Archbishop of Birmingham. Whatever the truth, he is widely respected as a shrewd political operator, sound administrator and sure-footed media performer. A grit and determination frequently attributed to his Merseyside roots are also part of the mix.

Vincent Nichols was born the second child in a family of three boys in Crosby on 8 November 1945. Both parents were teachers in Catholic schools. They were committed Catholics and remembered as people held in high regard in their parish of Sts Peter and Paul by the Bishop of Hallam, John Rawsthorne, also from Crosby and nine years older than Archbishop Nichols.

Both future bishops were educated at St Mary's College, a grammar school run by the Christian Brothers and also attended by the former BBC director general Lord (John) Birt, the poet Roger McGough, the broadcaster Laurie Taylor and the President of Trinity College, Oxford, Sir Ivor Roberts.

Sir Ivor, a year younger than Archbishop Nichols, remembers him as hard-working, affable and a very good scholar. Another contemporary, the writer and broadcaster David Crystal, emphasises the quality of the education at the school and surmises that this may have implanted in the young Nichols a sense of the riches that the very best Catholic education could provide: "The boys were not all middle-class. Some were lower-middle-class, some working-class. That kind of environment must give you all kinds of aspirations."

The Brothers kept their pupils alert to the possibility of a vocation to the religious life. But there was also an influence within the Nichols family - Fr Francis O'Leary, a cousin who was a Mill Hill missionary and who founded an international network of hospices under the name of the St Joseph's Hospice Association, or Jospice. Fr O'Leary (who is also related to Bishop Rawsthorne) was 14 years older than Vincent and a larger-than-life character. Stories of the missionary's adventures and achievements would have filtered through to the youngster. Archbishop Nichols is president of Jospice on Merseyside and, according to its director of fundraising, Pat Murphy, still takes an active interest in its work.

In 1963, Vincent Nichols was sent to train for the priesthood at the English College in Rome, where he gained licences in philosophy and theology at the Gregorian University. In 1971 he was appointed assistant priest and school chaplain in Wigan. There he met the 21-year-old David Alton, then a newly elected councillor on Liverpool City Council.

In 1976 Derek Worlock became Archbishop of Liverpool and, recognising Nichols' talent, marked him out for promotion. In 1984, at his mentor's instigation, Fr Vincent became general secretary of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. It was while working at Eccleston Square that he got to know the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Basil Hume. At the age of 46, in 1992, he was appointed a Westminster auxiliary. As Cardinal Hume's right-hand man and fixer, his fluency in Italian was especially useful and he would accompany the cardinal to Rome. He became a familiar figure in the Vatican corridors of power.

Cardinal Hume made no secret of the fact that he wanted his favourite auxiliary to succeed him and, when he died after a short illness in 1999, Bishop Nichols was briefly at the helm as administrator. But he was appointed instead to Birmingham. There he made it a priority to be visible in the local media, speaking out on local and national issues. His faithful press secretary, Peter Jennings, was ever at his side to exploit photo opportunities.

An early priority was dealing with a large number of historic cases of child abuse. He ordered thorough investigations and invited victims to meet him privately. Later he became chairman of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults, which was based in the city, and has now become the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service.

In multicultural Birmingham, he has been heavily involved in interfaith dialogue, championing the cause of religion against secular forces. Indeed some conservatives complained he showed too much respect for Islam last month when he allowed the chapel at Newman University College to be used for an event marking the birth of the prophet Muhammad.

Nationally, in the Church's battles with the BBC and the Government, he has played a leading role. In 2003 he complained to the corporation about a Panorama programme, "Sex and the Holy City", and a satirical cartoon, Popetown. This last programme was dropped by the BBC, and this was this perceived as a victory for Archbishop Nichols.

A bigger triumph was against the Government over faith schools. In the autumn of 2006 the then education secretary, Alan Johnson, attempted to oblige religious schools to give a quarter of their places to non-believers. Archbishop Nichols, who had been chairman of the Catholic Education Service since 1998, led the battle successfully, urging thousands of Catholics to complain. In typically robust style Archbishop Nichols described the plans as "ill-thought-out, unworkable, contradictory of empirical evidence and deeply insulting". Realising that the move could cost a number of Labour MPs their seats, Mr Johnson hastily withdrew and a former education secretary, Lord Baker, accused him of the "fastest U-turn in British political history".

However, the archbishop was unsuccessful the following year when he once again mobilised Catholics to protest against the Government's implementation of the Sexual Orientation Regulations, which forced Catholic adoption agencies to consider homosexual couples as adoptive parents. He was on the record as not opposing in principle adoption by a single gay person.

Archbishop Nichols' pugnacious  style is admired by one of his West Midlands MPs, Catholic Conservative William Cash. He describes the archbishop as an activist who is not afraid to make his mark on controversial issues, and predicted that at Westminster he would give "spiritual leadership in a direct way, rather than the discursive way in which Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has done".

But another seasoned observer feared mainstream English society would find such political shooting from the hip alienating. "If Vincent Nichols uses Westminster as a soap-box to complain about secularism, multiculturalism and all the other -isms it will put people off. Catholics will be back in the ghetto," he said.

The charge of ambition is levelled at Archbishop Nichols by a number of his critics but it is firmly denied by Lord Alton, one of his closest friends, who attributes such accusations to jealousy.

Although a favourite to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and named on the nuncio's terna or shortlist, it appeared in recent weeks that the Congregation for Bishops in Rome had had second thoughts about Vincent Nichols. They may have been influenced by two unnamed bishops who reportedly wrote to the nuncio complaining that Archbishop Nichols lacked humility. After his appointment was announced, the archbishop himself confirmed there was a point where the Congregation for Bishops "drifted away" from him and at the time felt relieved.

Those closest to him say he does relax. He reads for pleasure, loves watching football and still supports Liverpool. He regularly goes back to the city to visit friends and relatives, particularly his brother, John, who was left disabled after a car accident many years ago.

Catholics in Birmingham are warm in their praise of the spiritual leadership he has given. Will his spirituality shine through at Westminster? Lord Alton believes it will, if Archbishop Nichols follows Hume's example and lets his auxiliaries take care of administration to allow him to concentrate on pastoral leadership. Alton sees Vincent Nichols as combining some of the best qualities of his two mentors: Hume's spirituality and Worlock's political nous.