austraLasia #1867
Meeting the Cardinal by chance
NEW YORK: 6th June 2007 -- Yesterday's report on the awarding of a 'Doctor of Humane Letters' to Cardinal Zen brought several comments - one of them being a query as to what 'humane letters' might actually be! Did the journalist make a mistake (they're always doing that...)? No, he did not make a mistake. Amherst College website clearly says that's what they gave him - a doctorate of humane letters.
Then came a note from over New York way - received a little late on my part since I was 'on the road' and didn't get it when it was originally sent on 27th May. But it throws much ordinary light on why Cardinal Zen deserves such a doctorate. Of course the citation offers the extraordinary reasons as to why the College wanted to recognise the Cardinal's humanity. But it's the little indicdents in life which really show it for what it is. Let my friend tell his story - or some of it.
"He was in New York May 22-23, staying with Cardinal Egan (possibly having arrived on the 21st or possibly departing on the 24th--specifics unknown to me). He paid a visit to Maryknoll's headquarters in Ossining, about an hour north of Manhattan, dined with past pupils on Tuesday night and with the cardinal on Wednesday, and celebrated Mass on Wednesday (time unknown) at Transfiguration Church, the principal parish of New York's Chinatown--the very parish that was ours 1902-1949 but was transferred to Maryknoll in view of the neighborhood's shift from mainly Italian to mainly Chinese and of the missionaries' expulsion from Red China".
"Transfiguration's pastor, Fr. Ray Nobiletti, MM, was just delighted that the cardinal was visiting them and was eager that I should meet him. Because, as it happened, I was at Transfiguration on Tuesday evening for an event unrelated to the Cardinal Zen (a Mass and dinner celebrating the 100th anniversary of Maryknoll magazine) but got the opportunity to greet the cardinal out on the sidewalk as he was en route to his dinner".
"The sidewalk meeting was also a happy occasion for me to greet and chat briefly with my old friend Carlo Socol, accompanying the cardinal. On Thursday evening I was at St. Patrick's Cathedral for one of the Masses in the program of the Catholic Media Convention that I was attending, and when I exchanged greetings with Cardinal Egan he told me proudly that he'd just hosted Cardinal Zen for two days".
- on the sidewalk (footpath where I come from) en route to dinner. And it would have been a charming moment, for Cardinal Zen is a humble and charming man. How did the citation put it? A determined man who forgoes the pomp that some might enjoy, Cardinal Zen works out of a small, spartan office and wears the cardinal's red hat only on ceremonial occasions. There should be many more doctors of humane letters, methinks!
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