Disappointing

From the archives of the North Country Catholic (Feb 14th 1965):

CARDINAL GRATEFUL

Boston - "I say thank God and thank Pope Paul VI," commented Richard Cardinal Cushing of reports that the long silk and ermine cardinals' robes may be done away with.

"I certainly will be delighted that we won't have to wear it any more," he said.

When and if word comes to get rid of his robe - known as the cappa magna - he will "give it to the nuns to cut up and use for dresses on cardinal dolls, like the one I gave Caroline Kennedy," Cardinal Chushing said.

The cardinal said he has worn his robe only on rare occasions, mostly when dedicating a church "out in the country where people never saw a cardinal all dressed up."

Every time he has worn the robe he remarked "it seemed as though it strectched out half a mile."

This is wrong in so many ways.

I mean, cutting up a cappa magna (I am still feeling the physical pain)? Use the rags for dresses on cardinal dolls? And give these dolls to even more future "protect the constitution, especially the right to make our own reproductive decisions"-smooth-talkers? Good call, Cush! Well, it's not solely his fault. I mean, can you name one pro-life Kennedy? Seems to run in the family. Still, maybe little Caroline would have been better off with a real Catholic education than a real cardinal doll.

And what's that "out in the country"-stuff about? Yeah, those hillbillies deserve a taste of Hollywood-Catholicism, but I don't think I can impress the hard-boiled townies with a couple of yards of watered silk. Nice attitude. But I guess for someone who refers to a cardinal in cappa magna as being "all dressed up", the whole question is one of person rather than of office.

Which brings me to the "stretched out half a mile"-part. I don't know much about Cardinal Cushing except for the Kennedy bit, so maybe I am being unjust now. But reading this short article I can't shake the feeling that he probably had a self-confidence in comparison to which the train of a cappa really seemed to be half a mile long. So at least he got that right.

P.S.: Cardinal Cushing was once asked: 'Are you conservative or liberal?' To which he replied: 'In things I don't know about I'm conservative. In things I know about I'm liberal.' I know, this probably was supposed to be witty. But if you let the answer melt on your tongue for a while the taste of horror slowly unfolds.