A senior Catholic Church leader from Merseyside has emerged as an outside contender to become the next Pope, following the death of Pope Francis.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who was born in Crosby and raised in The Precincts near Endbutt Lane, is among 138 eligible electors from the College of Cardinals who will gather in Rome for the papal conclave – the secretive process that decides the next head of the Catholic Church.
The Archbishop of Westminster since 2009, Cardinal Nichols has led the Catholic Church in England and Wales for more than a decade. He was made a cardinal in 2014 and has long played a prominent role in Church affairs, both in Britain and abroad.
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He was educated at SS Peter and Paul RC Primary and St Mary’s College, where he played French horn in the school orchestra and first explored his faith during RE lessons. He went on to train for the priesthood in Rome, and was ordained there in 1969.
Speaking previously about the possibility of one day leading the Catholic Church, he modestly said: “On that broad perspective, I am a little dot.”
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But with the Church now preparing to elect a new Pope in the Sistine Chapel, the spotlight has once again turned to who could take over the world’s most powerful religious role.
If the next pontiff is Italian, Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, is widely considered the frontrunner. The president of the Episcopal Conference of Italy and Archbishop of Bologna, Matteo Zuppi, is another likely candidate.
