Derek Worlock
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Derek John Harford Worlock, CH (4 February 1920 – 8 February 1996) was a Roman Catholic bishop; his highest posting was as the Archbishop of Liverpool.
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Derek Worlock was a student at St Edmund's College from 1934 to 1944. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1944 in Westminster Cathedral, and not long afterwards was appointed private secretary to Cardinal Griffin.
He assisted successive Cardinals for some 19 years. He attended every session of the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965, the year in which he was appointed Bishop of Portsmouth. While in Portsmouth he set about renewing parishes, as well as undertaking the work of developing ecumenical relationships and the building of over thirty new churches in his Diocese.
In 1976 he was appointed Archbishop of Liverpool. Important events in his Cathedral included the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1982, and the 1990 launch of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland. Archbishop Worlock contributed to the work of reconciliation after the Toxteth riots in 1981, and in the aftermath of the football stadium tragedies at Heysel in 1985 and Hillsborough in 1989.
Archbishop Worlock was committed to evangelisation, and collaborated with his fellow Church leaders, as demonstrated by the books Better Together and With Hope in our Hearts which he and his Anglican counterpart Bishop David Sheppard jointly produced. Sheppard's daughter, Jenny, converted to Roman Catholicism.
In July 1992, Worlock underwent major surgery for lung cancer but survived long enough to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood two years later.
In January 1994, along with David Sheppard, he was awarded the Freedom of the City of Liverpool. He was made Companion of Honour in the 1996 New Year's Honours List, but died of cancer four (4) days after his 76th birthday, just a week before he was due to receive the honour.
[edit] References
- David J S Kay, The People of St Edmund's College (The Edmundian Association: 2003) ISBN 0-9546125-0-7
