Winning, Thomas Joseph (1925-2001), a Roman Catholic clergyman, was archbishop of Glasgow and head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland from 1974 to 2001. Pope John Paul II appointed Winning a cardinal in 1994.
Winning became famous for his vigorous opposition to abortion. In 1997, he took the controversial step of offering financial help through his archdiocese to any woman considering an abortion who would continue her pregnancy. Winning’s uncompromising view on this and other moral issues won support among traditional members of the Catholic church but caused concern among more liberal Catholics.
As archbishop of Glasgow, Winning served as a member of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the arm of the church that examines questions of doctrine and theology, from 1978 to 1984. Winning became president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland in 1985. In 1994, he joined the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity as well as the Pontifical Council for the Family. These Vatican offices promote closer cooperation among Christian denominations and coordinate the church’s fight against abortion, respectively.
Winning was born on June 3, 1925, in Wishaw, a town southeast of Motherwell, in Scotland, and spent most of his career as a cleric in and around Glasgow. He was educated at St. Peter’s College in Bearsden, a city northwest of Glasgow, and at the Pontifical Scots College and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained in December 1948. After further study at the Pontifical Gregorian University, he returned to the Glasgow area as assistant priest in the parish of Hamilton in 1953, where he served until 1957. He then worked as a parish priest and as diocesan secretary in Motherwell before becoming spiritual director of the Pontifical Scots College in Rome in 1961. Winning returned to Motherwell in 1966, where he worked as parish priest at Saint Luke’s until 1970. In 1971, he became auxiliary bishop of Glasgow. In 1974, he became archbishop of Glasgow and head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. The cardinal died in Glasgow on June 17, 2001.
