Moral choices do not depend on personal preference and private decision but on right reason and, I would add, divine order.

He died just over two weeks later in Westminster London at age 76. Moreover he was opposed to women priests but described most detractors of Humanae Vitae as "good conscientious and faithful". The Yorkshire Post reported in 2005; "Pupils at a leading Roman Catholic school suffered decades of abuse from at least six paedophiles following a decision by former Abbot Basil Hume not to call in police at the beginning of the scandal.

Following his death a statue of him in his monastic habit and wearing his abbatial cross was erected in his home town of Newcastle upon Tyne outside St Mary's Cathedral (opposite the Central railway Station) unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II. His elevation to a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church followed during the same year.