Cardinal defends young offenders

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor says everybody is a role model of sorts

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has described young offenders as "victims" in need of good role models.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said he had been "deeply moved" by a visit to a young offenders' institute in London.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he was aware of the damage inmates had inflicted but they too needed help.

Later, he will lead what is expected to be his final Christmas Midnight Mass as Archbishop of Westminster.

No role models

The archbishop, who was speaking on Thought for the Day, said he had prayed with and spoken to about 70 of the young men at Feltham Young Offenders' Institution in west London.

He said he was "conscious" of those who had suffered because of the crimes the men had committed.

"But as I listened to them talking in that prison, I also thought to myself, they too, in many ways, are victims.

"Almost all of them came from broken families and were caught up in violent gangs and, above all, they had no role models," he said.

He said many of them had no "father" figures to be there for them.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said everybody acted as a role model for the others in their homes, neighbourhoods, towns and cities.

More than 1,000 worshippers are expected to turn up to hear the 76-year-old archbishop lead the midnight mass at Westminster Cathedral.

Resignation

It is widely believed to be the final time he will do this, eight years after he was installed as the 10th Archbishop of Westminster.

He was made a cardinal a year later - in 2001 - by Pope John Paul II.

He wrote to Pope Benedict and offered to resign on his 75th birthday in August 2007 as Archbishop of Westminster - in accordance with Canon Law

But in July last year it was revealed that the Pope had asked him to remain in the post beyond this date.

He will be the first Archbishop of Westminster to take retirement since Catholic hierarchy was restored in England and Wales in 1850.

Before then, there was no diocesan or parish organization.

All of the archbishop's predecessors have died in office.

The Vatican is expected to announce the name of his successor in the new year.

The Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Cardiff, the Most Reverend Peter Smith, the Bishop of Nottingham, the Right Reverend Malcolm McMahon and the Bishop of Leeds, the Right Reverend Arthur Roche have all been mooted as possible successors.