Lest anybody forgot, on announcing his first scarlet batch a year ago this week, the Pope issued a public letter to the cardinals-designate warning them that they were to accept the red hat as “neither an honour nor a decoration,” but “simply a service that requires you to broaden your gaze and open your hearts.” The incoming class was likewise urged to greet their elevations in a manner “far from any expression of worldliness or from any form of celebration contrary to the evangelical spirit of austerity, sobriety and poverty.”“The cardinalate,” Francis said, “does not imply promotion.”
But yr Holiness, but-but-but . . . It’s never been that way!
(I love what he does in ecclesiastical matters, where he knows what he’s talking about.)
Blithe Spirit 