Spreading the word: The modest cardinal and his powerful blog

From Ireland-

I WOULDN’T want to put the Pope and Pierce Brosnan in the same boat, but whenever I hear the radio ad for that Sky bundle thing, it rings a papal bell for me.

The ad has Pierce working very hard to be an ordinary and humble lad from Meath who somehow got lucky/famous/rich, but who — fair dues to him — really hasn’t changed that much. The comic point of the ad being that nobody’s paying a blind bit of attention to Brosnan’s don’t-mind-me-I’m-really-one-of-you self-deprecation.

Modesty seems to play better if you’re a highly-placed churchman than if you’re a film star. You will remember that when Pope Francis came through as the new pontiff, world media fell over themselves about his humility. He travelled back to his hotel by bus, they told us. Imagine. And paid his bill in the hotel all by himself. The way commentators went on about it, you’d think travelling by bus qualified the traveller for beatification and paying one’s own bill was the ultimate indication of how the new head of the Church was down to earth and authentic and not given to notions about himself. No Pierce Brosnan irony at all.

It’s a bit like that with Cardinal Seán O’Malley in Boston. Those close to him say he likes to be called Cardinal Seán, fada and all. This is clearly meant to underline his accessible ordinariness, but it’s a bit puzzling. Cardinal Seán. As opposed to what? He’s hardly going to sign his blog “His Eminence, Cardinal Seán O’Malley”, and, anyway, being invited to address someone as Cardinal Seán does kind of leave you in no doubt as to his eminence. Which is groovy. I’m cool with mannered obeisance. I call ministers “minister”, bishops “bishop”, and gardaí who flag me down with sirens shrieking and blue lights flashing “officer”. (Hell, I’d call them “superintendent” if I thought it’d prevent a point or two from going on my licence, but I don’t think that would work.) Mannered obeisance joined at the lip to casual intimacy doesn’t work for me, but, hey, I’m never likely to meet the man who prefers to be called Cardinal Seán with the fada, so my pathetic preferences are irrelevant. Let’s give the man a small round of applause for seeking to be a man of the people. 

More here-

http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/terry-prone/spreading-the-word-the-modest-cardinal-and-his-powerful-blog-231031.html