The death of Cardinal Basil Hume leaves an enormous gap in the life not just of English Catholics but of the English as a whole.
This unassuming Benedictine monk, who to many people's surprise became Archbishop of Westminster 23 years ago, gained the respect of a people who had become increasingly suspicious of organised religion but who were prepared to recognise and appreciate those rare men and women with the gift of holiness.
That, in fact, was Basil Hume's great gift. He made spirituality interesting. One of his themes early in his episcopate was to talk of the God-shaped gap in people's lives; and he demonstrated how it could be filled.
What came over above all was his concern for people. This was particularly marked when, in 1984, he visited Ethiopia during the famine. He was, I suspect, shattered by the suffering he encountered. But it moved him to do everything in his power not just to relieve this suffering but to eradicate its causes.
Hence his powerful advocacy of the need to unshackle the Third World from the chains of unpay able debt, and his steadfast criticism of the arms trade.
He was never a radical. As abbot he told his monks at Ample forth that, while his heart was progressive, his head was conservative. This balance enabled him to steer the Catholic Church in England and Wales through what could have been a disturbing time, with radicals furious that the promises of Vatican II remained unfulfilled and conservatives angry that the old certainties were dissolving.
Indeed, over the past three decades the Catholic Church in England and Wales has remained remarkably immune from the divisive tensions that have ravaged the Church in so many other countries, particularly through the appointment by Rome of unsuitable bishops.
The one time this threatened in England, Cardinal Hume and his fellow bishops managed to persuade Rome to change its mind through the exercise of what one insider termed "obsequious diplomacy."
Under his leadership, the Church in England and Wales has remained a church in which radicals and conservatives have rarely had the authenticity of their Catholicism impugned, and have thus been able at least to co-exist and at best to understand and appreciate the other's legitimate concerns and anxieties.
Cardinal Hume always came over as quintessentially English, and he had a deep loyalty to the Crown. Yet his father was Scots and his mother French.
A full obituary of Cardinal Basil Hume will appear tomorrow