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Bishop Richard Moth during his installation Mass as the 12th Archbishop of Westminster
The newly appointed leader of Catholics in England and Wales has acknowledged the failures of the Church "especially when the vulnerable have been abused" during his formal installation ceremony.
Archbishop Richard Moth also paid tribute to the struggles faced by refugees and reaffirmed the need to listen to victims of abuse as he was formally installed at Westminster Cathedral.
As the 12th Archbishop of Westminster, he succeeds Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who stepped down aged 80 in December after serving 16 years in office.
Also in attendance was the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, who welcomed Moth's appointment, praising his "deep concern for the dignity of every person".
As part of the symbolic rites of taking office the archbishop knelt at the Great West Door of the central London cathedral before blessing a line of people with holy water and processing down the nave.
As Archbishop of Westminster, the cleric has become the president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and leads an estimated four million Catholics.
Prior to his appointment, Moth served for a decade as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton. Following his official naming by the Vatican in December, he pledged his continuous focus on areas of social justice and accountability.
Addressing a 2,000 strong congregation of Catholic faithful, the new archbishop pointed to the Church's "vital" evangelical work which he acknowledged was "fragile" and had been "adversely impacted by our failures in love, power and self control".
He said: "Here, I am most aware of every occasion on which members of the Church, or the Church as a whole, have failed - most especially when the vulnerable have been abused."
The archbishop said that such failures call for "listening to" and "learning" from "those who have suffered so grievously", adding: "We need not fear the great questions of our time: the need for all peoples to live in peace; the value and dignity of every person; the right to life at every stage; the protection of the vulnerable; the plight of the refugee and the dispossessed; and the protection of our common home."
"I very much look forward to working with you to deepen our relationships and to strengthen our shared Christian witness," she told her new Catholic counterpart.
