Uncle Cormac marks 60 years a priest
The diamond jubilee of the ordination of Cormac Murphy-O’Connor brought a large number of guests to Westminster Cathedral and Archbishop’s House, Westminster, last week.

Among them were family members to whom the cardinal and former Archbishop of Westminster is always “Uncle Cormac”, but there were also friends from the political and public spheres, including Cherie Blair, Sir Rocco Forte and his wife, Aliai, and Lord (Robin) Butler, who was with Margaret Thatcher when the then-Bishop of Arundel and Brighton arrived at the Grand Hotel a few hours after the IRA bombing of 1984.

Friends from his two stints in Rome – as a student and a teacher – included the former seminarian at the English College who went on to become the Master of Balliol, Sir Anthony Kenny.

One of the auxiliary bishops the cardinal appointed to work beside him in Westminster, George Stack, now Archbishop of Cardiff, preached the homily at the Mass, and the other, Arthur Roche, now in Rome as Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, spoke at the reception. Both talked of the cardinal’s humanity, steady leadership, his joy in friendship and his love of a good party.