Archbishop Richard Moth was solemnly installed as Archbishop of Westminster in a Mass at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday, succeeding Cardinal Vincent Nichols as leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Source: The Tablet.
In the homily, Archbishop Moth said that God calls us to “go out into the world of our own age, carrying with us the message of the gospel of peace” into “the public square”, where the “great questions of our time” call for its “light” to be shone upon them.
“Let us ensure that the light of the gospel shines brightly in our parish communities, in our homes and our schools,” he urged. “At every opportunity, let us shed the light of the gospel on the world of our day, in our universities, our places of work.”
He referenced words in the second reading, from St Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy, “Fan into flame the gift of God … for God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control”, which he recalled hearing at the episcopal ordination of Cardinal Basil Hume in 1976.
Archbishop Moth said, “God’s call to us is not a call to power as so often exercised in the world, to achieve dominion over others. Rather it is characterised by self-control, not a self-control ‘generated’ as it were from within ourselves, but a self-control guided, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
“It is characterised by love, a love that reflects to all the love that we see in Christ. This is a love that is total self-giving, self-emptying to the point of the death that we see depicted so clearly in the great rood here, above the sanctuary. This is Christ-like service, that brings faith, love and hope to a world that, in our present age, cries out for hope.
The ceremony was carried out according to the ancient Catholic rite used for the reception and installation of Archbishops of Canterbury before the Reformation, which has been used in Westminster since the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in 1850.
Archbishop Moth was born in Chingola, Zambia, in 1958, and was brought up in Kent. He was ordained Priest for the Archdiocese of Southwark in 1982.
In 2001, he was appointed Vicar General and Chancellor of the Diocese. He was ordained Bishop of the Forces in 2009 in Westminster Cathedral and appointed Bishop of Arundel and Brighton in 2015.
FULLS TORY
‘Fan faith into flame’: Richard Moth installed as Archbishop of Westminster (By Aili Winstanley Channer, The Tablet)
