The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has called on the nation to move on from the "bitter" debate over Brexit and see the good in others. 

In his Christmas Eve homily, Cardinal Vincent Nichols said that the Church was called to bring goodness to the world and that Christians must be "a people with no ambition except to do good". 

"After so much bitter political discourse and division," people need "to look one another in the eye and see there all that is good," he said. 

The Cardinal said that it was "these bonds of faith holding us together" and affirmed that "the source of that good in every person we meet is, of course, the life of God, a divine goodness, which shows itself fully in Christ Jesus."

He reflected on the birth of Jesus, which despite occurring "in the poorest of circumstances", was a "simple yet immensely powerful" event.

The birth of Jesus, he said, "breaks open for us a new understanding of who we are and how we are to live."

He went on to urge Christians to "carry everyone in our hearts", including "those who do not yet know the wonder of God, and those who are too busy to bother."

He added that the task of Christians in an unbelieving world was "to show to others the way of finding the goodness of God in every person, in every place."

"And we show the way by doing it ourselves," he said.

"Only then will our society become a place in which no one is afraid and all sense a welcome. This is the fresh start we need."