Archbishop of Westminster in the context of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster

Westminster Cathedral, officially the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood, is the largest Catholic church in England and Wales. The shrine is dedicated to the Blood of Jesus Christ and is the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster.

The original site on which the cathedral stands in the City of Westminster was purchased by the Diocese of Westminster in 1885, and construction was completed in 1903. Designed by John Francis Bentley in a 9th-century Christian neo-Byzantine style, and accordingly made almost entirely of brick, without steel reinforcements, Sir John Betjeman called it "a masterpiece in striped brick and stone" that shows "the good craftsman has no need of steel or concrete."

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster (Latin: Archidioecesis Vestmonasteriensis) is a Latin archdiocese of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The diocese consists of most of London north of the River Thames and west of the River Lea, the borough of Spelthorne (in Surrey), and the county of Hertfordshire, which lies immediately to London's north.

The diocese is led by the archbishop of Westminster, who serves as pastor of the mother church, Westminster Cathedral, as well as the metropolitan bishop of the ecclesiastical Province of Westminster. Since the re-establishment of the English Catholic dioceses in 1850, each archbishop of Westminster—including the incumbent, Cardinal Vincent Nichols—has been created a cardinal by the pope in consistory, often as the only cardinal in England, and is now the 43rd of English cardinals since the 12th century. It is also customary for the archbishop of Westminster to be elected president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales providing a degree of a formal direction for the other English bishops and archbishops. Though not formally a primate, he has special privileges conferred by the papal bull Si qua est. The archbishop of Westminster has not been granted the title of Primate of England and Wales, which is sometimes applied to him, but his position has been described as that of "chief metropolitan" of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and as "similar to" that of the archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England (as the metropolitan bishop of the Province of Canterbury). The diocese is one of the smallest dioceses in England and Wales in geographical area, but the largest in terms of Catholic population and priests.

Henry Edward Manning (15 July 1808 – 14 January 1892) was an English prelate of the Catholic Church, and the second Archbishop of Westminster from 1865 until his death in 1892. He was ordained in the Church of England as a young man, but converted to Catholicism in the aftermath of the Gorham judgement.