HE MAY BE FROM RHODELIA. BUT HE GETS AROUND

A HISTORY OF MY HOBNOBBING WITH THE BIG WHEELS

I know I was quoted by Cardinal O'Malley of Boston at least three years in a row at his annual Chrism Masses during Holy Week. Cardinal O'Malley listened to me talk most of a day a few years ago at his annual priest convocation and he was quoting from those presentation.

I heard last week that Cardinal Collins of Toronto, Canada, quoted me at this year's National  Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors convention in Scottsdale, Arizona.  

In the recent past, Cardinal Collins listened to me Monday through Thursday, four weeks total,  in Toronto at four of his priest convocations -  not to mention two hours in my car, to and from the airport, when he accepted my invitation to speak at Saint Meinrad Seminary when I was working there. 

Cardinal DiNardo of  Galveston-Houston listened to me for a few days a few years ago at his annual priest convocation in Houston, Texas.  

Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles sent me three affirming personal letters about my book INTENTIONAL PRESBYTERATES a few years before his retirement. He even went out of his way to say goodbye to me after I had finished speaking at the Florida Bishops' Meeting. 

I spent some time one evening talking to Cardinal Kelvin Felix of  the Archdiocese of Castries in Saint Lucia at a reception and dinner in the house of the Pope Francis's Apostolic Nuncio to the Caribbean in Port  of Spain, Trinidad, a couple of years ago. 

Cardinal George listened to me  speak for an hour in Chicago at his annual priest convocation.  He had his four Auxiliary Bishops seated beside him in the front row. 

Several other American Cardinals and a hall full of bishops listened to me speak for an hour at their Spring Meeting in Saint Petersburg, Florida a few years ago. I also addressed the bishops of the Catholic Extension Society for an hour or two in Chicago.

I spoke all afternoon to the archbishops and bishops of the Antilles Bishops Conference of the Caribbean a couple of years ago. 

Every time I speak in front of Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops and Auxiliary Bishops, I always whisper to myself as I walk to the microphone, 

"They don't know I am from Rhodelia!"
"They don't know I am from Rhodelia!"
"They don't know I am from Rhodelia!" 


They should be so lucky!