www.vatican.va

Back Top Print Search



WINNING Card. Thomas Joseph

WINNING Card. Thomas Joseph

Cardinal Thomas Joseph Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow, was born on 3 June 1925 in Wishaw, Scotland. The only son of Thomas Winning and Agnes Winning (née Canning) and the brother of Margaret Winning.

He studied at St Patrick's Primary School, Shieldmuir, and Our Lady's High School, Motherwell. He then completed his philosophical studies at St Mary's College, Blairs, where he took classes from 1941 to 1943.

He began his theological studies at St Peter's College, Glasgow and, at the end of the World War II, was one of the first group of students to return to Rome to the newly reopened Pontifical Scots College. He studied at the Gregorian University in Rome from 1945 to 1949 and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Motherwell on 18 December 1948.

In 1949, he returned to Scotland and was appointed assistant priest at St Aloysius Church, Chapelhall, where he stayed until 1950. That year he returned to the Scots College in Rome to study canon law at the Gregorian University, where he received a licentiate in 1953.

He served as assistant priest at St Mary's, Hamilton, from 1953 to 1957, and at Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral, Motherwell, from 1957 to 1958. He was secretary of the Diocese of Motherwell from 1956 to 1961, and chaplain to the Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception, Bothwell, from 1958 to 1961.

From 1961 to 1966 he was spiritual director of the Pontifical Scots College in Rome, and in 1965 he qualified as an advocate of the Roman Rota.

He served as parish priest of St Luke's, Motherwell, officialis of the Motherwell Diocesan Tribunal, and episcopal vicar for marriage in the Diocese of Motherwell from 1966 to 1970. He was the first president and officialis of the newly established Scottish National Tribunal in Glasgow from 1970 to 1972.

On 22 October 1971 was appointed titular Bishop of Louth and Auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Glasgow, and received episcopal ordination in Glasgow on 30 November 1971. From 1971 to 1974 he was Vicar General of Glasgow and from 1972 to 1974, parish priest of Our Holy Redeemer Parish, Clydebank.

On 23 April 1974 he was transferred to Glasgow on the retirement of Archbishop Scanlan.

From 1973 to 1977 he was president of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland. and president of the National Commission for Social Welfare of the same Conference from 1974 to 1984. Since 1977 he has been president of the Conference's Catholic Education Commission, and president of the Conference since 1985.

From 1978 to 1984 a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1978 to 1984 and is the delegate of the Scottish Bishops' Conference to COMECE and member of the CCEE. In 1983 he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Glasgow, and in 1986 he became a fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland. He was made Grand Prior of the Scottish Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in 1989 and was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University by the University of Strathclyde in 1992.

Since 1986, he was President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland.

Created and proclaimed Cardinal by John Paul II in the consistory of 26 November 1994. Titular church, St. Andrew delle Fratte.

Card. Thomas Joseph Winning passed away on 17 June 2001.