The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral government of the metropolitan archdiocese of Westminster (England) presented by Cardinal Vincent Gerard Nichols, until now archbishop of the London see.
Likewise, the Pope has appointed as the new metropolitan archbishop of Westminster, the most relevant Catholic see in the country, Monsignor Charles Phillip Richard Moth, who until this moment held the position of bishop of Arundel and Brighton.
Profile of the new archbishop
Monsignor Charles Phillip Richard Moth was born on July 8, 1958, in Chingola, Zambia. He completed his primary and secondary studies in Catholic schools in the county of Kent and finished his priestly formation at St. John’s Seminary in Wonersh (Surrey) and at the Université Saint-Paul in Ottawa, where he obtained a Licentiate in Canon Law.
He was ordained a priest on July 3, 1982, for the metropolitan archdiocese of Southwark. Throughout his ministry, he has held various pastoral and administrative roles, including parochial vicar, judge of the metropolitan tribunal of first instance of Southwark, chaplain to the medical corps of the British Army, private secretary to the archbishop, master of liturgical celebrations, director of the vocations secretariat, and vice-chancellor.
In the field of judicial and ecclesiastical governance, he served as president of the metropolitan tribunal of second instance of Southwark and, in 2001, was appointed vicar general of the archdiocese, also receiving the title of honorary prelate.
He later served as parish administrator in various parishes of the archdiocese. On July 25, 2009, he was appointed military ordinary for Great Britain, receiving episcopal consecration on September 29 of that same year. On March 21, 2015, he was transferred to the see of Arundel and Brighton, from which he now moves to assume the pastoral government of Westminster.