LONDON — Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Richard Moth, a former bishop of Britain’s military ordinariate, as the 12th Archbishop of Westminster, succeeding Cardinal Vincent Nichols who is retiring at the age of 80.
A canon lawyer, Bishop Moth, 67, has served as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton in southern England for the past decade. He is best known for his work on prisons, criminal justice, and life issues, and is regarded by those who know him as sound on doctrine.
As Archbishop of Westminster, the leading Catholic see of England and Wales, he is expected to be elected president of the bishops’ conference and be elevated to cardinal along with all his predecessors since the see was established in 1850.
“He is sound on doctrine and has been sympathetic to those who want to have the traditional Mass, and not an enemy of it at all,” a parishioner of the diocese told the Register.
Until his installation at Westminster Cathedral on Feb. 14, Cardinal Nichols will serve as apostolic administrator of the metropolitan diocese, a Dec. 19 diocesan statement said.
On hearing of his appointment, archbishop-elect Moth said he was “moved greatly by the trust that Pope Leo has placed in me.”
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Friends and associates describe archbishop-elect Moth as a “good fellow,” genial, friendly, a hard worker and a “safe pair of hands.” He is not regarded as an academic but a loyal and faithful priest, and faithful to the Holy See. Those who knew him from seminary days regarded him as a “model student,” and a popular young priest who liked the outdoors, making him a good fit to be bishop of the Armed Forces. He is a keen horse-rider and likes hiking.
Bishop Moth has been a frequent retreatant over the years to the Carthusian monastery at Parkminster in Sussex and for several decades has been a Benedictine oblate of Pluscarden Abbey — considered to be a traditional abbey without being “traditionalist.”
The archbishop-elect is not regarded as a proponent of the traditional Roman rite, but he allowed Masses in the vetus ordo to continue in the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton in the years since Pope Francis’ 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes that restricted the Traditional Latin Mass. He also allowed and took part in a traditional requiem Mass celebrated earlier this year for Father Raymond Blake, a popular priest in his diocese.
“He is sound on doctrine and has been sympathetic to those who want to have the traditional Mass, and not an enemy of it at all,” a parishioner of the diocese told the Register.
