Cardinal Carter once more.

As noted in May, His Eminence Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter died peacefully at his Rosedale home in Toronto, with his family and close associates at his bedside on Sunday, April 6, 2003.

The headlines in the Toronto papers declared him a "Cardinal for all Canada" and a "Man of God" (Toronto Star), a "Prince of the Church--skilled at the game of politics" (National Post and, "Canada's Catholic Leader" (Globe & Mail).

The funeral Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic. Also concelebrating were Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte of Montreal, some thirty bishops, and hundreds of priests.

In addition to our three-page summary of the Cardinal's life in the May issue, we bring two more comments illustrating his personality.

The following extract is from an interesting lengthy article entitled: "Toronto's Enigmatic Cardinal Carter dies," in the American Catholic weekly The Wanderer (April 16, 2003). It was written by Paul Likoudis who at one time was employed by the Catholic Register in Toronto. Editor

At a gala retirement dinner in 1987, at which 3,000 of Canada's elite joined to honour him, the Cardinal addressed his enigmatic role as leader of Canada's principal, though not primatial, see.

"We have lived in troubled times and there's no fun in sailing when there is no wind and God knows we've had wind enough. We all know that, in sailing, we have to put our weight against the wind. I have tried to do that in the leadership required of me in the Church. This is why I have been variously described at some moments as being progressive or liberal, at other times, conservative and reactionary."

Suzanne Scorsone, spokesperson for the Toronto Archdiocese, whom Carter first recruited to head his Office of Marriage and Family Life, recalled Carter telling her: "If the wind is blowing heavily from the right, I lean a bit to the left; if it is blowing heavily from the left, I lean a bit to the right. That way I can try to walk forward with a reasonable and steady balance.

She added: "He took what was essential in the teaching of the Church and made it understandable in the context of here and now, without sacrificing an iota of content."

Guerrilla warfare 

Carter's twelve years as cardinal-archbishop of Toronto were marked, in the secular arena, by rapid political, social, demographic, and cultural changes, and, in the Church, by guerrilla warfare when the liberal-modernist faction that moved into powerful positions during the reign of his predecessor, Archbishop Philip Pocock, sought to highjack the controls.

As a young reporter, recently hired by veteran Canadian journalist Larry Henderson, editor of Toronto's Catholic Register, I witnessed that guerrilla warfare up close on numerous fronts.

Assuming editorship over the rapidly sinking newspaper in December 1973, after a succession of failed editors and severe financial problems, Henderson staked the paper's fortunes on fidelity to the Magisterium--a position that brought him many enemies in the archdiocesan chancery and social justice offices--as well as the intellectual elite at St. Michael's College. By 1980, two years into Carter's reign, Henderson's most grating critic, Jesuit Fr. William Ryan (a cofounder of the Washington based Center for Concern) persuaded Carter to appoint a board to oversee the Register--which he did though Carter--in a very typical move--appointed Henderson as chairman.

In December 1981, Ryan was so alarmed at the strong orthodox tone of the paper, as well as its popular appeal, that he wrote a letter to each of the 15 Ontario bishops asking them to evaluate the paper on editorial policy, how it could be improved, the spectrum of issues covered, and the choice of writers and contributors. Within a matter of weeks, the bishops responded and Carter called a meeting of the board.

At the meeting, Ryan called for Henderson's resignation and told Carter he should be named editor.

Then, as Henderson later recalled, "An interesting bit of body language took place. The cardinal moved the pile of letters with his arm from the centre of the table to the side. The cardinal asked my opinion of the letters, and I told him that three seemed to be favourable, three unfavourable, the rest on the fence, and commented that it reflected the actual division of opinion in Canada. Fr. Ryan started to speak. The cardinal pushed the pile of letters further over till they fell down the side of the table. He then adjourned the meeting, and walked out, arm-in-arm with Fr. Ryan, chatting amiably.

"The next day, the cardinal called me up and said, 'Well, Larry, I suppose you would like to go on managing the Register yourself?' 'If it pleases Your Eminence,' I said."

The board was never convened again, and in November 1982, Cardinal Carter publicly backed a massive subscription drive for the paper.

Another note on the Cardinal by David Dooley

A point made repeatedly in the obituaries for Cardinal Carter was that he was a powerbroker, a man skilled at the game of politics. He was also a man of letters, something few powerbrokers are. At his funeral a silver-haired lady was quoted as saying that "No one's mentioned his years at the Newman Club at McGill University. He gave them intellectual leadership and his personality was a unifying force."

When he said Mass and delivered a homily at a Chesterton meeting in Toronto about eleven years ago, he expressed regret that the Catholic literary revival in England, the era of Chesterton, Belloc, Ronald Knox, Gerald Vann and a phalanx of Jesuits led by Father C.C. Martindale, had come to an end. These writers were his guides and inspiration when he was in his heyday.

To illustrate his familiarity with Chesterton, he quoted a passage from "The Ballad of the White Horse." He quoted it off by heart-probably the only member of the College of Cardinals who could have done so. As Father Ian Boyd might have said, Cardinal Carter was a sinner like the rest of us, but to a man who could quote Chesterton with such fluency and understanding, much could be forgiven.