Whispers in the loggia: In Carroll's Crypt, The Last Goodbye

“What the Temple of Jerusalem is to the Israelite,
what St Peter’s Basilica in Rome is to the faithful of the church universal,
such is this cathedral to the American Catholic....”

Though that line was uttered by the first cardinal to hail from the Premier See, a century later, it would become almost loudly etched inside the heart of the "imported" heir who'd follow in James Gibbons' footsteps, who now likewise takes his rest in the heart of the nation's founding fold, but only after he passed that quote and the life it contained to so many of us.

Here, from American Catholicism's mother-church – the Baltimore Basilica he so lovingly and faithfully restored as a gift for the future – the fulfillment of William Cardinal Keeler's last wish: his burial in its crypt alongside the founding bishops of these United States – the first such moment in seven decades... and one only come to pass after a quick tour was given the newest of the line, just recently arrived from Cathedral Street's now-spinoff in Washington:


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by Rocco Palmo via Whispers in the Loggia