LONDON (CWNews.com) - Archbishop Cormac Murphy O'Connor was installed as the tenth Archbishop of Westminster at 11 am this morning in an historic ceremony.

    The actual moment of installation was movingly simple. He was shown to the throne which has stood in the Westminster Cathedral for just over 100 years and he was handed his crozier by Bishop Vincent Nichols who has administered the diocese since Cardinal Hume's death and will next week be installed as Archbishop of Birmingham.

    Attending the two-hour Mass were priests and people from the archbishop's old and new dioceses and well as the Prime Minister's wife, Cherie Booth, and the Duchess of Kent, a convert to Catholicism.

    In his inaugural homily, Archbishop Cormac -- as he is already popularly known -- said: "I have no time for prophets of gloom. I do not believe these are gloomy times for the Catholic Church in our country. When the skies are dark the light shines more brightly. For those who follow Jesus Christ there is the assurance that in Him, God has visited his people."

    Welcoming the many representatives of other Christian denominations, the archbishop said that while there were "obstacles and the difficulties," the path to Christian unity "is like a road with no exit, a pilgrimage of grace we make together. More and more it seems to me that all of us who profess Jesus Christ must speak with one voice to give witness to him in this strange and wonderful new world in which we live."

    As he left the cathedral, Archbishop Cormac spent a few moments speaking to Mrs. Blair before setting off on an impromptu walk-about, shaking hands with members of the crowd and being congratulated by passers-by.

    Last night, the new archbishop was welcomed by the priests and people of his new diocese. At both occasions he spoke informally and created ripples of laughter. He thanked the congregation for welcoming him "to your archdiocese -- I mean, our archdiocese. I mustn't make that mistake again." He also began today's homily by pointing out that the bookmakers had only given him odds of 25-1 of being named archbishop.