- ****
He was a bishop (my sister went to a Catholic college). He spent about 8 years in Nigeria when he was first ordained a priest, but then was wounded and had to return to Rome. He worked at the Vatican, where he was eventually asked to be the personal secretary to Pope Paul VI. So, that was cool... he had some neat stories about him. One interesting one was that his favorite feast was the Transfiguration - August 6th. Two of his encyclicals were issued on that day (in different years)... and he died on that day. This guy was with him at that time.
He also stayed on as secretary to Pope John Paul I, who was pope for just 33 days. Apparently, he was a very humble man who was convinced he shouldn't have been elected. He mentioned several times that they should have elected someone else...and once said that it should have been "the man sitting in front of me" (though he didn't say who that was). Apparently, he knew his time would be short (he had a heart condition, I think), so he mentioned that he would not travel and that plans should be saved for his successor.
When John Paul II was elected pope, this guy stayed on as his secretary for about 5 years, and then became Master of Ceremonies for papal liturgies. Eventually, he was ordained a bishop by the pope and sent back to Ireland. One of the first things he did as Master of Ceremonies was to go to the Archives and check out the seating arrangement of the first conclave of 1978 - sure enough, the man who was elected John Paul I was seated behind Karol Wojtyla of Poland, the future John Paul II.
But he started out his talk by mentioning that the graduation was on May 13th, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. This was also the day on which Pope John Paul II was shot by a Turkish assasin (thought to be paid by Communists). You knew his version of the story was going to be a bit unique when he said, "As the pope was being loaded into the ambulance, he said to me, 'John, do not worry - this injury will not end in death.'" True, he had just watched two popes die before his eyes, but it was nice of JPII to reassure him while he himself was bleeding from a serious gunshot wound!
Anyway, these stories probably don't sound nearly as cool when retold, but it certainly was interesting to hear them first hand. He did a good job of painting the personalities of the men he worked with, and of course he had humorous asides.
More to come later....