c. 1999 Religion News Service

LONDON _ Cardinal Basil Hume, one of England’s most respected church leaders and ecumenists who held the Roman Catholic Church’s dissident factions together in the rocky years after Vatican Council Two, died Thursday (June 17) after a two-month battle with cancer. He was 76.

Hume, as Archbishop of Westminster since 1976, was England and Wales’ top Roman Catholic official. He was known for his strong loyalty to the Vatican but was not afraid of raising tough issues, including suggesting that married men in some parts of the world be ordained to the priesthood”as the only way to bring the sacraments of eucharist and reconciliation to the people.” He learned of his cancer in April and was admitted to the hospital at the end of May but on June 2 was able to visit Buckingham Palace for a private meeting with Queen Elizabeth II. She gave him the high honor of the Order of Merit, one of the few awards she bestows by her own choice.

Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey expressed his”profound sadness”on learning of Hume’s death.”We worked together closely and productively for many years, and throughout that time my respect, admiration and affection for him have grown,”Carey said.”He was rightly held in high regard for the leadership he gave the Roman Catholic Church and for his dedication to the cause of ecumenism. But for many ordinary people _ Catholics and non-Catholics, believers and non-believers _ it was his personal qualities, especially his humility and compassion, that gave him a special place in their hearts.” British Prime Minister Tony Blair called Hume”goodness personified, a true holy man with extraordinary humility and an unswerving dedication.” For many English Catholics, Hume’s great achievement was to ensure that under his leadership the English church was not divided or polarized by the tensions that arose while the impact of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council of the mid-1960s were absorbed by the church.

Even before being appointed to Westminster, Hume showed his ability to maintain unity in what could have become a divided church. During his 13 years as abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Ampleforth, he kept his monastic community united as it adjusted, sometimes painfully, to the changes the council brought about.

According to friends, he seemed able to see all sides of a question, and would remind his fellow monks that, while his heart was progressive, his head was conservative.

His style of leadership was to create and foster consensus.

Born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on March 2, 1923, George Hume was educated at Ampleforth. When he left school in 1941 he promptly entered the monastery as a novice, taking the name Basil. With a degree in history from Oxford and a licentiate in theology from Fribourg in Switzerland, he became head of modern languages at Ampleforth. He was fluent in French, thanks to his mother, and also knew German.

His non-Catholic father was a distinguished Scottish heart specialist.

Hume, however, seemed archetypically English, and in November 1995 he was quietly proud to be able to welcome Queen Elizabeth to vespers in Westminster Cathedral _ the first time an English monarch had attended a Roman Catholic service since 1688 and a dramatic sign of Hume’s ecumenical influence.

Hume also won praise for the sensitive manner in which he handled the touchy question of Anglican priests _ some married _ leaving their denomination in the early 1990s over the issue of the ordination of women.

Under Hume’s leadership, the English church provided a welcome while ensuring that the newcomers were fully integrated into the Catholic Church and did not form anything like the church within a church the dissidents had been as Anglicans. The ordination of former Anglican priests, several of them married men, to the Catholic priesthood included a recognition of their previous ministry and the episode was not allowed to disrupt the good relations with the Church of England that had been built up since Vatican Two.

Indeed, Hume established his ecumenical credentials with the beginning of his tenure at Westminster, by leading a group of Roman Catholic Benedictine monks to the Anglican Westminster Abbey for vespers on the day he was ordained a bishop.

Under Hume’s leadership the Catholic church in England and Wales joined with the other mainstream churches of Britain and the non-Catholic Churches of Ireland in setting up the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland.

When in 1989 Rome thought of appointing a priest from the controversial and conservative Opus Dei movement to head the vacant see of Northampton, Hume and his fellow bishops persuaded Rome to think again, and an episcopal appointment that could have been as divisive as several in other countries was averted. In his own diocese he had earlier ensured that Opus Dei was not able to recruit young people under 18.

Hume’s unaffected spirituality helped him become probably the most widely respected and loved churchman of his time in England.

DEA END NOWELL