Cardinal Vincent Nichols has said that the Church’s infallibility does not protect it from “errors of judgment”. He made the remarks on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme ahead of joining the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, for a service marking the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation. Cardinal Nichols was asked by the presenter, Sarah Montague, about conflict within the Church over issues such as Communion for the remarried. The cardinal, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said: “There is no doubt there is tension within the Catholic Church, but one of its great strengths is that we have a Pope – and we have a Pope who can say yes or no and then give you a hug.” Montague suggested: “And is infallible.” Cardinal Nichols replied: “The gift of infallibility is something that Christ gives to the Church which is expressed through the Pope. Now, that means that we will never, as it were, drift so far from the core revelation of God in Jesus as to get in a total mess. It does not protect us from every error of judgment, particularly in a conflictual situation.” In 1997, the Vatican’s then doctrinal chief Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said that it was not quite true that “the Holy Spirit picks out the Pope”. Rather, “Probably the only assurance He offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined.” Cardinal Nichols later attended a service at Westminster Abbey marking 500 years since Martin Luther’s apocryphal nailing of the Ninety-Five Theses to a church door in Wittenberg. The cardinal processed in to the abbey alongside Archbishop Welby. Six other members of the bishops’ conference were also present, along with Bishop Brian Farrell, the secretary for the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. During the service the Archbishop of Canterbury formally presented the Anglican affirmation of a landmark 1999 Catholic-Lutheran declaration on justification. He said the declaration had “resolved the underlying theological issues of 1517”. In response Bishop Farrell said: “Let us be confident then that He who began this good work will carry it on to completion.” According to the National Catholic Reporter, the event combined the Anglican prayers of confession and absolution with Lutheran hymns and anthems. A Danish Lutheran pastor, the Rev Susanne Freddin Skovhus, told the American paper that Lutheran organisers had not described the service as a “celebration” of the Reformation, as would be the case in Lutheran-majority Denmark, because Lutherans in England were “quite sensitive” to ecumenical implications. Asked about the anniversary of the Reformation on the Today programme, Cardinal Nichols said that there was “a sense of repentance and also a sense of regret that maybe things could have been done differently. But I’m quite sure that as in most episodes of history, the truth is complex.” He also compared the impact of the printing press with that of the internet, commenting: “People are increasingly saying indiscreet things at two o’clock in the morning on Twitter and then having to live with the consequences.”