Cardinal Vincent Nichols: 'The church will be made stronger.'

Christopher Lamb, Rome correspondent for The Tablet, spoke to Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols about the coronavirus pandemic.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols says the Church will emerge stronger from the Covid-19 pandemic by giving Catholics time to dig deeper into their personal faith alongside a renewed appreciation of the sacraments.

Speaking to The Tablet, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster urged believers to use the lockdown period to develop their prayer life and that this “testing time” was a moment for society to sift the essential from the peripheral.

“In a strange way we will be a stronger Church for this experience,” the cardinal explained. 

“If you think about the millions of people around the world who are for long periods deprived of sacraments – it might be because of violence it might be because of persecution it might be because of the remoteness of where they live – they live a Eucharistic fast; a sacramental fast. 

"When the sacraments become available to them it’s such a joy and I think we will experience that when we can gather again. There will be a joy in being visibly again the body of Christ.”