Cardinal Murphy O'Connor - attracted to the idea of being in House of Lords

Well, that's the part of the story that led me to this interview in the Daily Telegraph.

Far more interesting are his comments on secularism, e.g.:

“There is a new orthodoxy of what it is OK to believe or not believe. Some of it is sensible, but some of it seems to me to be a cause of intolerance,” he says. “Nobody is obliged to be a Christian, but no one should be obliged to live according to the new secular religion, which says it alone decides what’s right. It says, 'We rationalists decide, and all sensible people must accept this.’ Why should believers have to conform? Especially if it’s to do with social, medical and sexual matters.

“I think there’s a small minority who are aggressive, who want religion to keep silent, not to have a voice.”

They haven’t got a hope of that when it comes to the Cardinal. His affable tone – as he leans back in a leather chair – disguises tough talk.

He is getting quite a battering in the Comments but I think he speaks wisely. The fact that he is 80 perhaps accounts for the wisdom. And maybe he should have been given a seat in the Lords? Maybe, or maybe not, but he obeyed the Pope's indications.

He also confidently predicts that Archbishop Nicholls will be a Cardinal in a year or two.