Vincent Nichols, the King's good friend

History will be cruel to Vincent Nichols, because history, if told accurately, will expose his tragic career to the whole world forever.

Recall that in February of this year he made news again.

Following in the footsteps of his pontiff Vincent Nichols did a photo-op at Hampton Court at Vesper time caring little, no doubt, about the history of the nation he lives in.  I hope he believes he is doing good, and I hope that God will bring good out of this somehow (one never knows). Maybe a Catholic, even as poor a one as Vincent Nichols, might by his presence there wash away some of the five centuries of encrusted filth staining Hampton Court.

Or maybe Vincent Nichols wants to be the King's good friend first and God's, second.

The author of the following article imagines that Henry VIII, at least, would most likely not appreciate the Cardinal's gesture.

"How would King Henry VIII react to the news that Cardinal Vincent Nichols will preside at Catholic Vespers in the Chapel Royal of Hampton Court Palace on February 9? Not just by turning in his grave (which anyway might be difficult since it is possible, if not probable, that his daughter Mary, when she became queen, had his tomb opened and his embalmed body burnt). No, there would be seething, bewildered anger and ruthless revenge immediately planned.

He was hard on English cardinals anyway. Cardinal Wolsey, who built magnificent Hampton Court (too magnificent for Henry’s comfort), would probably have lost his head had he not died a natural death a few days before facing a rigged trial for high treason. When John Fisher was given a red hat on the eve of martyrdom, Henry famously vowed that the bishop would never have a head to put it on – and carried out his threat.

And then there was the king’s cousin, Cardinal Reginald Pole, who had fled his homeland long before and become so dangerous an enemy that Henry made desperate efforts to have him kidnapped or assassinated. When these failed he took revenge by putting Pole’s mother, Blessed Margaret, in the Tower and eventually butchered her.

Cardinal Nichols’s presence at Hampton Court would be especially galling in that he is Archbishop of Westminster and a senior member of a nationwide Catholic hierarchy appointed by Rome, in communion with the Pope and confident that it is an authentic, organic part of the Church Universal. Henry thought he had got rid of all that and had set up an independent national Church with him as its lord and master. He would be outraged to know that the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and his brother bishops had an “alternative” set of cathedrals and dioceses, and that there had long been houses of monks, friars and nuns in England once more".

Read the entire article here.