This year showed that seven words saved two lives. In fact, one of the saved lives went on to give birth to two more people. Thus, seven words gave life to four people. That is a lot of people who owe their lives to a handful of words.

As St John Henry Newman explained, our “words have a meaning, whether we mean that meaning or not; and they are imputed to us in their real meaning”.

I said the seven words from my heart, and meant them when I insisted: “Please, Cardinal Newman, make the bleeding stop.”