Archbishop Vincent Nichols Interview

The Telegraph has interviewed Archbishop Vincent Nichols in Lourdes...

Standing in the shade of a magnolia tree in the garden of the Gallia Londres, a four-star hotel in Lourdes, Archbishop Vincent Nichols is deep in conversation with two teenagers.

They are among a group of 800 pilgrims from the diocese of Westminster whom he has brought with him to the French market town that is home to one of the most important shrines in the Christian world.

However, their discussion is devoted not to spiritual questions, but to the forthcoming football season. The Liverpool-supporting archbishop has been trying, unsuccessfully, to persuade the young pilgrims of the error of their ways in following Chelsea.

Archbishop Nichols is a rare Church leader, equally comfortable talking about the transcendental as the trivial. It is a different scenario from only a matter of weeks ago, when he was drawn into the child abuse scandal that had engulfed the Irish Catholic Church. Despite condemning the catalogue of abuse published in a 2,600-page report after a nine-year investigation into Ireland's Catholic-run institutions, he faced fierce criticism for suggesting that the clergy who admitted to committing the acts had been "courageous". It was a lesson in the level of scrutiny he will be under as leader of Catholics in England and Wales, a position he took up in May.

He concedes that he has been tempted to indulge in self-pity. "I look back over my life and sometimes ask, 'How can I be Archbishop of Westminster?'" he says. "A miracle of Lourdes is that people lose their self-pity. I could at times be quite despondent about being archbishop."

For full interview click here.