Called from the Kop to serve God; The son of two Crosby school teachers is installed as Archbishop of Westminster tomorrow. Peter Elson reports.

Byline: Peter Elson

THE Most Rev Vincent Nichols, the new Archbishop of Westminster has been accused of being ambitious - as if that were a sin.

The high-flying Crosby cleric is also described as a man "of awesome moral stature combined with a cutting edge to pull the nation back towards its senses".

Although the life-long Liverpool FC supporter as a child wanted to be a lorry driver (nothing wrong in that either), nowhere in the Bible is it forbidden to modify your aims in life.

"There's a romanticism in a life on the open road," he explains, but the calling from God proved to be stronger.

"When I was about 15 or 16, standing at the Anfield Road end of the Kop, I'd feel a nagging call about what God wanted," he says.

"I was not comfortable resisting it, but said to myself, 'Why will God not leave me alone?' "Yet I should add that I am happy as a priest. It's not always been easy or without struggles, but I have no doubt it's the place where I should be." Certainly, he exhibits a steeliness in standing up for Christianity in general and Roman Catholicism in particular.

This is widely applauded by Christians in Britain who feel their beliefs are under siege from all sides.

The threat is both from secularism and excessive political correctness, fearful of offending other faiths.

At the age of 63, when, the Prince of Wales apart, most men are considering calling time on their careers, Archbishop Nichols of Birmingham is preparing for his installation in London tomorrow.

And there are those that say his final goal is to be the first English pope for 850 years. This was Adrian IV, who died in 1159 after five years as earthly head of the Roman Catholic church.

This son of Crosby deals swiftly and forthrightly with any such comments in a no-nonsense Northern way.

"My father gave me some excellent advice, which was ask for nothing and refuse nothing," he modestly says, while leaving all options open.

"He is fiercely loyal to his friends and he is hard-working and diligent.

He has an open door to his priests and is extremely good with people," says his controversial press officer, Peter J ennings.

Installed as Britain's youngest bishop when he was aged 46, while everyone agrees he is very bright, inevitably sniping will continue that Father Vincent is on the fast-track.

However, he keenly emphasises that being Archbishop of Westminster does not put him above other British Roman Catholic archbishops or make him leader of the 4m followers. "The media has given Westminster a preeminence which is incorrect. We're all accountable directly to the Pope," says Archbishop Nichols.

"Geographically, Westminster is more confined than Birmingham, where I felt my mission wasn't finished." Pope Benedict XVI, it is said, personally selected Archbishop Nichols for Westminster earlier this year, after the Bishops' Congregation failed to reach a consensus.

"I felt very daunted at the beginning, but then I'd always expected to remain in some capacity in the Archdiocese of Liverpool. I just swallowed hard and said yes," he says.

His predecessors leading the Archdiocese of Westminster have all become cardinals, and it is likely that he will achieve this in 2012.

That will be when Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, present Archbishop of Westminster, turns 80 and is ineligible to help choose a new pope.

It's a long way from a Crosby childhood as the son of Henry, who taught at Sacred Heart, and Mary, who taught at St Peter and St Paul..

"I was brought up in a really solid family, who played and prayed together, the middle of three brothers, which is a good way of learning regard for others." His brother Peter lives in Brisbane, Australia, and his other brother, John, resides on Merseyside.

"Lancashire Catholicism has a real quality to it. In Merseyside, it's informed by a powerful Irish influence," he says.

"Our parish was really fun. I remember the young priests at St Peter and St Paul who led the young people in everything from singing to football.

"There was a recognition that being a Roman Catholic was a good thing, written deep inside of me, which makes sense of life.

"What is a very personal conviction is that being a Roman Catholic is good for you.

"There's never been any conflict for me. It never troubled me as teenager or was a burden.

"I also find that young men today are not put off coming into the priesthood by scandals or the demands (of celibacy) put on them personally. They hear the same call as I did.

"Youngsters are very idealistic and generous. The call to God can be asked of everyone, everywhere, at any time.

"Roman Catholics should be comforted in their faith and it's our role to give principled and profound confidence in that.

"Nobody should be afraid to stand up and be motivated by the conviction that this way of life is good for our local communities and society at large.

"Being a good Catholic means truthfulness, a willingness to help and good service. A Roman Catholic is willing to be quite sacrificial and give up things for someone else's good." In spite of this homily, it is for a more old-fashioned muscular for m of defending Christian values that he is known to the wider public.

Some say a priest who once espoused liberal values is becoming increasingly conservative. He took on the BBC and had the animated comedy series Popetown banned, also accusing the Corporation of wider "biased and hostile" anti- Christian programming.

Likewise, as chairman of the Catholic Education Service, he faced down Labour education secretary Alan Johnson, who wanted quotas of non-Catholic pupils introduced into Catholic schools.

On adoption, he failed to get the RC adoption agencies exempted from sexual orientation regulations, which forced them to consider gay couples as parents.

"It is unacceptable to suggest faith communities can work with public authorities only if we accept not simply a legal framework, but also the moral standards touted by the Blair gover nment," he said last year.

"I don't go looking for these issues. I had long conversations with Alan Johnson and had to make a stand on faith school quotas," he says.

"It clearly touched a nerve across the country. Roman Catholic schools are regarded by many parents as firstly giving the best education.

"As importantly, the challenge to every school should be an ability to give moral standards with a clear code of behaviour.

We're explicit about that." In fact, he described the quota policy as "insulting", "divisive" and "ill thought-out, unworkable and contradictory of empirical evidence".

Gaining support from more than 2,000 Catholic head teachers caused the plan to be dropped.

He is vaguer on the matter of falling congregation levels, citing the difficulty in measuring numbers of those attending Mass.

Many families who once attended Mass weekly "now only attended twice a month", he concedes, although many people regard the situation as far worse.

Commentators like Birkenhead MP Frank Field claim the 200- year collapse in Anglican congregations has been matched by their RC counterparts in just the last two decades.

Archbishop Nichols counters that, in certain of Birmingham's parish churches, hundreds of Poles and other ethnic groups now swell the congregations.

"That's an important influence.

The face of the Roman Catholic church keeps changing with the pace of the country," he says.

Doubtless, as Archbishop of Westminster, he will take full advantage of the national media.

Clearly he sees his job as keeping the church at the forefront as a force of faith to be consulted on national policies.

Not that he kow-tows to the media. While commentating for the BBC on Pope John Paul II's funeral in 2005, he was asked by Huw Edwards to describe the anamnesis - the memorial character of the Eucharist.

He firmly replied: "No, Huw.

This is an important part of the Mass - we will be quiet".

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The religious road from Crosby to Westminster ... via Wigan 

ORDAINED for the Archdiocese of Liverpool, in 1969, Archbishop Nichols had studied at the English College in Rome, Manchester University and Loyola University, Chicago.

He entered the Venerable English College, in Rome, and was licensed in Sacred Theology from Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University in 1970.

Very much a North Westerner, he was educated at St Mary's College (1956-63), Crosby, run by the Christian Brothers..

He remains friends with fellow pupil Sir Ivor Roberts, Britain's former Italian ambassador and now president of Trinity College, Oxford.

Father Vincent's first parish was at St Mary's, Wigan, where he was chaplain to St John Rigby sixth-form college, Orrell, and St Peter's High School, Wigan.

After parish work in St Anne's, Toxteth, in 1975, he was made director of the Upholland Northern Institute adult education centre, in 1980..

Four years later, he left the Archdiocese of Liverpool to become general secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, in London.

Working closely with the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Basil Hume, in 1992, he became Britain's youngest RC bishop, as an auxiliary bishop.

He was a leading force in the Common Good document in 1996, in which Catholic bishops condemned the pursuit of greed and appeared to endorse New Labour..

In 2000, he was appointed Archbishop of Birmingham. With the Walk with Me project, he aimed to bring people together through a spiritual link to the seasons of the ecclesiastical year.

Archbishop Nichols was appointed as the 11th Archbishop of Westminster, by Pope Benedict XVI on April 3, 2009.

In choosing his coat of arms, he included a blue wavy band for the River Mersey, Lancastrian red roses, and anchors for Liverpool..I am happy as a priest. It's not always been easy or without struggles

CAPTION(S):

Steeliness of approach - the Most Re e verend Vincent Nichols at The Ar chbishop's House, London Picture: KATIE COLLINS/PA