eminenza

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jul 02, 2005

A friend sent me the above photo of a cardinal in St. Peter's Square, taken during a downpour immediately before the beginning of the conclave in April. We had the same spontaneous liking for the guy. No limo, no attendant lackeys, no leather attaché case. Instead: a fistful of pamphlets, a cheap, broken umbrella (which he's holding himself), and shoulders wider than his waist.

His name is Gabriel Zubeir Wako, Cardinal Archbishop of Khartoum, Sudan. A biographical profile in Australia's Catholic Weekly shows that he's no stranger to hardship and conflict. It also may explain Zubeir Wako's resemblance -- hard to justify by any physical similarity! -- to the late Bishop Austin Vaughan, the humble yet unflinchingly gutsy auxiliary of New York.