Our Honorable & Famous Capuchin brother is Honored and Appreciated

It seems as though we weren't the only people remembering our cardinal brother Sean O'Malley, OFM Cap., on Saturday, June 29th? The news of his turn to the still-thriving age of 80 was pretty hard to miss for any who share the algorithms that monitor things on the web. The Crux site for Catholic news saw a glowing acknowledgement of the "event" from the Catholic columnist and alumnus of our St. Thomas More Prep, John Allen. John has been an unconfessedly whole-hearted admirer of our Capuchin vocation and of the friars of the Province of St. Conrad, which he supports from his current home in Rome on the hill above Vatican City.

John had a lot to say about Sean in his descriptive, headlined article, Church’s most classically Capuchin prelate reaches milestone at 80. .

American Catholicism marked a quiet milestone yesterday, as Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston turned 80 years old on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. It’s apt that his birthday coincides with the annual celebration of the great apostles of Rome, because it’s arguable that no other U.S. prelate has ever come quite as close to becoming the Bishop of Rome himself as the now-octogenarian Capuchin . . . .

. . . [T]here is at least one aspect of the Sean O’Malley story which is absolutely set in cement, no matter what the future holds: To wit, that few churchmen have ever as fully incarnated the charism of their religious order the way O’Malley does the ethos of the Capuchins . . .

The fact that O’Malley has insisted on continuing to sport his Capuchin habit whenever possible, despite his exalted status as a Prince of the Church, is a visual way of expressing a much deeper internal reality. . .

What no one can question . . . is that over a lifetime, Sean O’Malley has attempted to live his vocation as fully as possible, not simply as a priest or a bishop but also as a Capuchin Franciscan. Speaking as someone educated and formed by the Capuchins out on the high plains of western Kansas, I can testify from personal experience that’s no small thing.

It seems that we have an excuse to celebrate our cardinal Sean's life as a Capuchin even more this week. Of course, as Providence would have it, yes, Sean's birthday is the same day the Church venerates Sts. Peter & Paul, but within these days that follow, we celebrated our Capuchin calling on the anniversary of our own historic Magna Carta, the bull Religionus Zelus which was approved by the Medici Pope Clement VII on July 3, 1528, declaring our Capuchin Order a valid reform of the Franciscan Order.

We should note for archive purposes that Elise Allen, John's wife and a senior correspondent at Crux, also had an article highlighting Sean this weekend: Pope’s safeguarding czar urges Vatican to take down Rupnik artwork.

Happy Birthday and bravissimo, brother!