London – “Recalling the experiences of goodness in our lives helps to open our hearts to hope.” Drawing on this conviction, taken up from the magisterium of Benedict XVI, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Apostolic Administrator of Westminster, today signed a Pastoral Letter for the Feast of the Holy Family, linking the mystery of Christmas to the everyday life of households and to the ecclesial journey of the Jubilee of Hope, celebrated under the theme ‘Pilgrims into Hope’.
The day, marked by a large attendance of the faithful, began at Westminster Cathedral, where Nichols presided this morning over the Solemn Pontifical Mass for the closing of the Jubilee. The Cathedral was filled to capacity, and the Catholic community of Westminster stood out for its composure, attentive participation and prayerful recollection throughout the celebration.
In the Pastoral Letter released today, the Cardinal weaves together two threads that run through Christian experience: hope and family. Hope, he writes, matures when the good received is recognised as a gift: friendship, new births, moments of joy, unexpected opportunities, kindness shown even by strangers. “Goodness gives rise to hope when we recognise it as a gift of God,” he affirms, insisting on a decisive point: God reaches people in many ways, often through paths that resemble chance and which, when read more deeply, reveal a hidden pattern of grace.
Nichols portrays hope as a stable virtue, capable of bearing the strain of time. He describes it as a steadfast trust that God “will hold us in his love” until the final fulfilment. In his Letter, this perspective does not remain abstract: it becomes an invitation to gratitude and, as a consequence, to generosity. When life is “touched” by goodness, the Cardinal observes, compassion grows and so does the willingness to become, in turn, instruments of good within the daily fabric of society.
At the heart of the text stands the family, presented as the “foundation” of both Church and society, the “first school of life” willed by the Creator. Nichols thanks those who work to safeguard stable relationships, navigating crises and transitions between generations. At the same time, he acknowledges candidly that for many people the family can also become a place of suffering, rejection and disorientation, marked by material insecurity and, in not a few cases, by poverty. Here the Pastoral Letter takes on the tone of ecclesial responsibility: help, he stresses, must be offered in ways that strengthen the dignity of family life, without hollowing out the role of bonds and responsibilities. In this context, Nichols thanks all who serve in parishes and through Caritas in supporting those who are “losing heart”.
A significant passage is devoted to young people, identified by the Cardinal as one of the brightest sources of goodness and hope. Nichols recognises in them a desire to serve, an attentiveness to those who are excluded, and a search for guidance and support—words that sound both as encouragement and as a charge to adults and communities to offer credible accompaniment.
The Letter also takes on the character of a personal reckoning. Nichols returns to the announcement, made in recent days, of his successor, explaining that with the conclusion of the Jubilee Year the Diocese is preparing to welcome the new Archbishop, Bishop Richard Moth, while his own service to Westminster is drawing to a close. The Cardinal gives thanks for the prayers received over the years, asks forgiveness for his shortcomings, and asks to be accompanied spiritually in the new phase that lies ahead, describing himself once again as a “pilgrim into hope”.
In its closing lines, the good wish returns to the simple, domestic scene of Christmas: families gathered around the crib, the celebration that continues, life as a gift. It is the seal on a day which, through liturgy and the spoken word, sought to reaffirm that hope is learned in concreteness: in goodness remembered honestly, in suffering endured without evasion, in relationships patiently safeguarded, and in the charity that sustains those who struggle.
Marco Felipe Perfetti
Silere non possum