As the spiritual leader for Catholics across a huge swathe of the centre of England, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham has an enormous church.
And the 61 year-old Archbishop is not afraid to use the power and influence of his office, much to the Government's irritation.
Famously, he forced Education Secretary Alan Johnson into an embarrassing U-turn over quotas in faith schools. He also pitched into the argument over gay adoption, arguing Catholics should be granted an exemption.
He is also on record as calling on the Government to recognise the importance of daily collective worship in schools on the grounds that it encourages moral and spiritual development, and he vocally joined other religious leaders in a call for an amnesty for asylum seekers.
He has not been slow to lambaste the BBC for what he regards as the consistently negative and disrespectful way the corporation reports on the business of the Catholic Church, and was particularly upset when the BBC commissioned Popetown for its digital channels - an irreverent animated look at life in the Vatican.
And a couple of Christmases ago he turned his sights on the Post Office for opening on a Sunday in the run up to Christmas.
With such a willingness to make his views known, maybe it's no surprise Archbishop Nichols comes from Liverpool, having been born in Crosby just after the Second World War. He was ordained priest in 1969 and ordained bishop by Cardinal Basil Hume in 1992.
His first appointment as a bishop was in North London as an auxiliary bishop - a post he held for eight years before coming to Birmingham. He was also general secretary of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.
In March 2000 he was installed as the ninth Bishop and eighth Archbishop of Birmingham.
His archdiocese is vast, covering Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Solihull, the whole of Staffordshire, and Berkshire and Oxfordshire north of the Thames.
In addition to his pastoral oversight of this huge area, Archbishop Nichols is chairman of the Department for Catholic Education and Formation of the Bishops' Conference, and chairman of the Catholic Education Service (CES). He represented the European bishops at the November 1998 Synod of Bishops from Oceania and attended the Synod of Bishops for Europe in September 1999.
He travelled to Rome for the installation of Pope Benedict XVI, having previously met the future Pope on a number of occasions, describing him as "a delightful person" and "a man of great, great talent". He said, "He's deeply courteous, respectful, charming even. He takes life in a very measured way and brings great depth and great sensitivity to the papacy."
Archbishop Nichols has written two books to date: The Promise of Future Glory and Missioners.
