The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham has emerged as the front-runner to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor as Archbishop of Westminster, according to sources in London and Rome.

The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, who was the first English bishop to receive a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI after the Cardinal, is said to have impressed the hierarchy in Rome with a sermon he gave in Oxford last week on traditionalism in the Church.

The Archbishop is on the Church’s conservative wing and is known to be an enthusiastic supporter of the Pope’s campaign for liturgical renewal. He also made the headlines when he stopped a satirical cartoon series about the Vatican from appearing on the BBC. If successful, he will replace Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor this time next year, when the cardinal is expected to stand down.

Archbishop Nichols was among the most enthusiastic English bishops to welcome Pope Benedict’s election. According to the editor of The Catholic Herald, he is the only bishop in England and Wales to have enthusiastically taken up the Pope’s recent Apostolic Letter on celebrating the Tridentine rite, or extraordinary Mass.

In his speech to the Latin Mass Society in Oxford, Archbishop Nichols said: “Please remember that what you study here is not a relic, not a reverting to the past, but part of the living tradition of the Church. It is, therefore, to be understood and entered into in the light of that living tradition today.”

The Pope believes that the answer to Church growth lies in liturgical renewal and he wants his senior bishops to embrace his reforms. Those in Rome think that the Archbishop has raised the profile of his Birmingham archdiocese, overtaking Liverpool to become the second-most-important archdioceses in the country. Christopher Gillibrand, the conservative Catholic blogger, said: “He’s been playing all his cards right. His chances are good.”

Damian Thompson, editor-in-chief of The Catholic Herald, said: “On the whole, the bishops of England and Wales have failed to respond to the Pope’s deeply inspiring Apostolic Letter, which liberated the ancient liturgy and offered it as a resource for the whole Church. The only bishop who appears to understand the Pope’s programme of liturgical reform and seems prepared to respond to it is the Archbishop of Birmingham.”

The biggest mark against Archbishop Nichols is that he is perceived as ambitious, although his supporters insist that he is ambitious for the Church and for God, not for himself.

Dr Thompson said: “We need someone to close the gap between the real signs of vigorous life in many parishes and the leadership of the Pope. At the moment there is nothing in between.”

Peter Jennings, spokesman for Archbishop Nichols, said of the speculation: “It is the Holy See and not journalists or bookmakers who appoint archbishops. Archbishop Nichols does not discuss the matter of the appointment of a new Archbishop of Westminster with me, nor would I expect him to do so.”

Archbishop Nichols, 61, impressed Rome with his campaigns to improve the way Catholicism is covered by the media. He forced the BBC to withdraw the cartoon series Popetown and the Government to abandon its plans for a nonfaith quota of pupils for faith schools. In Oxford last week, he chose to use the 1970 “ordinary” rite introduced by Pope Paul VI for the Latin Mass. In Rome this will be interpreted as Archbishop Nichols being true to the Pope’s view that there is really just “one rite” for the Mass, whether in “ordinary” or “extraordinary” form.

A new Archbishop of Westminster on the extreme conservative wing of the Church would be accepted with reluctance by most priests and bishops. But by using the “ordinary” Mass in Latin at the meeting of the Latin Mass Society, Archbishop Nichols showed himself to be sympathetic to traditionalists while at the same time not being their prisoner. Although regarded as a conservative in the context of the English Church, in Rome he would be seen as more of a church diplomat.