Father Cormac Murphy-O’Connor led a fulfilled life which ended peacefully in hospital in West London on Friday 1 September, surrounded by friends and family. Aged 85, there had been nine previous Cardinal Archbishops of Westminster, but, as he put it in his memoir, he “had been the first to live to tell the tale”. Few public men have been able to close their account so neatly and so well-prepared, accompanied by so many prayers and blessings. The note of controversy that inevitably surrounded the news of his death was muted. He was loving and well loved, a friend as much to ordinary parishioners as popes, and mercifully compassionate to a fault.
06 September 2017, The Tablet
A good life well lived
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