Cardinal George Basil Hume, O.S.B., S.T.L., D.D.
Washington Theological Union
Washington, D.C.
June 25, 1999
The First Annual Lecture of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative was presented by Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb, of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama, and Chair of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative Advisory Committee. Archbishop Lipscomb delivered the prepared lecture of Cardinal George Basil Hume, O.S.B., who had since past away in June of 1999. The lecture, entitled “One in Christ: Unity and Diversity in the Church Today,” was moving and relevant to the ecclesiastical landscape of the day.
Cardinal Hume entered the Benedictine monastery at Ampleforth, in North Yorkshire, England, in 1941, professed solemn vows in 1945, and was ordained a priest in 1950. Named Magister Scholarum of the English Benedictine Congregation in 1957, he was elected Abbot of Ampleforth in 1963. He also served as chairman of the Benedictine Ecumenical Commission from 1972-1976. In March of 1976, Pope Paul VI named him to the See of Westminster, where Cardinal Hume was subsequently honored as a member of the College of Cardinals in May of 1976.
Cardinal Hume served as president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, in addition to several other leadership posts on the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, Churches Together in England, and the Council of Christians and Jews. In May of 1999, Queen Elizabeth II bestowed upon Cardinal Hume the Order of Merit.