Cardinal John surprised by level of interest in his appointment

Today, Friday 6 March, a liturgical reception will take place in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Wellington to formally welcome Cardinal John Dew back from Rome.

An open invitation has been made to anyone who wishes to attend.

The Evening Prayer of the church will be prayed and light refreshments will follow.

Cardinal John said he had been surprised by the level of interest in his appointment as New Zealand’s fourth cardinal, and the first to be inducted in 32 years.

Since returning home media have been reporting on his activities.

The Dominion Post reporter noted that being a cardinal does not protect you from the tribulations that affect ordinary mortals.

Cardinal John arrived back in Wellington without his luggage – including scarlet cardinal’s soutane.

It had gone astray after his plane out of Rome was delayed, causing him to miss his connecting flight from London.

“I got them back late Friday night,”

Last week when Cardinal John turned the first sod to mark the beginning of the building of a new gymnasium at Bishop Viard College, he was wearing a much less impressive black soutane with scarlet piping and buttons!

On the weekend he was in the Wairarapa to celebrate the first mass of the newly established Wairarapa Parish and to open a new Gymnasium name after him at the secondary school he attended in Masterton.

Cardinal John said it was his “great delight” that one of his first official duties as a new cardinal was to open the gymnasium.

He joked how he “just scraped through” School Certificate at St Joseph’s, after his elder sister passed handsomely.

He said his father had remonstrated with him, saying if he had spend less time playing sport, he would have done better.

“If we had had this facility, I’m sure I would have done worse.”

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