Overview
- Installed at Westminster Cathedral before about 2,000 people, Archbishop Richard Moth knelt at the Great West Door, blessed worshippers with holy water, and processed down the nave.
- In his homily, he acknowledged the Church’s failures, especially the abuse of the vulnerable, and called for listening to and learning from victims to ensure safe communities.
- He warned that the Church’s evangelical work is fragile and harmed by failures in love, power and self-control.
- He outlined priorities that include peace, the dignity of every person, the right to life, protection of the vulnerable, the plight of refugees and the dispossessed, and care for the common home.
- Dame Sarah Mullally delivered a homily and highlighted planned collaboration with Moth as co-presidents of Churches Together in England, as he succeeds Cardinal Vincent Nichols after 16 years.