Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (24 August 1932 – 1 September 2017) was a British cardinal, the Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

His youngest brother, John, was a regular officer in the Royal Artillery who died of renal cell carcinoma;[7] he had two other siblings, James (a doctor and rugby player) and Catherine.

His cousin, Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, was a Dominican priest and expert on St Paul who served as Professor of New Testament at the École Biblique in Jerusalem from 1967 to his death in 2013.

As rector, he hosted the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, on his historic visit to Pope Paul VI in 1977.

He held important positions among the bishops of Europe and has also been consistently influential in ecumenical work; from 1982 to 2000 he was a co-chairman of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission.

[10] In 2000 he was awarded the Lambeth degree of Doctor of Divinity by the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, in recognition of his work for Christian unity.

[9] In the consistory of 21 February 2001 he was created Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria sopra Minerva by Pope John Paul II.

He also served on the Pontifical Councils for Culture and for Laity, and was secretary of the Vox Clara commission which oversees the translating of liturgical texts from Latin into English.

[13] In January 2002, he preached during the Anglican morning service at Sandringham, the first time a Roman Catholic prelate delivered a sermon to an English monarch since 1680.

The cardinal also referenced that he personally had three names in mind for himself in the unlikely event that he was elected as pope, settling on Adrian, Gregory, or Benedict.

As he was the 10th Archbishop of Westminster, and also because this station is directly opposite the Chapel of St Patrick, he was buried there in accordance with his wishes due to his Irish connection with County Cork in Ireland.

We are confident that the provisions already made throughout England and Wales under the indult granted back in 1971 go a significant way toward meeting the requirements of the new norms.

[29]When he issued a letter implementing the pope's rules to the clergy of his diocese in November, he was criticized in some quarters for requiring parish priests to request permission before Mass could be celebrated in that traditional form.

[30] On 3 December 2006, Murphy-O'Connor issued a response to a statement made by Prime Minister Tony Blair on World AIDS Day (1 December 2006) in which Blair said, "The danger is if we have a sort of blanket ban from religious hierarchy saying it's wrong to do it, then you discourage people from doing it in circumstances where they need to protect their lives."

In response to this Murphy-O'Connor said, I think what I would like to say to the prime minister is that it would be much better if he used that money to provide more antiretroviral drugs – medicines – for the millions of children, women who are affected.

Previously he had commissioned major research on the pastoral challenges migrants present in his parishes, which received widespread press coverage when published as The Ground of Justice.

[35] In February 2013, Murphy-O'Connor said that while a radical departure from previous teaching was not likely, it would be "wise" to focus on "what's good and what's true" about marriage and family life instead.

[36]In March 2008, Murphy-O'Connor joined Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Scotland in opposing the government's proposed embryology bill.