Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, is flying high at the moment, chairman of the “elite eight” cardinals going to Rome next week to advise the Holy Father on necessary reforms. He was invited to address the plenary meeting of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops this week.

Readers will indulge me, I trust, if I write again about Msgr. Thomas Joseph Raby, whose funeral was held last week in Kingston. It does not seem excessive to spend another week on his memory.

Thomas Joseph Raby — T.J. to his closest friends, always Mgsr. Raby to me — died a few weeks shy of his 95th birthday. Msgr. Raby was born on Oct. 1, and it pleased him that his birthday was the feast of the Little Flower. It is a measure of the length of his years that when Msgr. Raby was born in 1918, St. Therese did not yet have a feast day. She was not beatified until 1923, nor canonized until 1925. Indeed, Msgr. Raby was born during the First World War.

With the retirement and replacement of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone as the Holy See’s secretary of state, a difficult chapter in Vatican governance has come to an end. Over the last few years senior cardinals around the world openly criticized him. A delegation of Pope Benedict XVI’s most trusted cardinals went to see him, begging that he fire Bertone, and news of the meeting became widely known. In the meetings of cardinals before the conclave in March, the dominant theme was how to remedy his maladministration, and that indelicate topic was aired publicly in Bertone’s presence.

As the new academic year beckons, we ought not forget some of the happy news of the summer, namely that The Catholic Register won the Cardinal John P. Foley Award as the best national newspaper by the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada. Congratulations to my colleagues for this recognition.

Pope Francis’ homilies and talks have been very well received for their familiar examples and their straightforward practical applications. Over the summer he has spoken in a profound and challenging way on many occasions, whether addressing the young people in Rio or speaking to bishops. Yet one of his most practical — and well noticed — bits of advice was an aside in a talk he gave to seminarians and religious novices on July 6 in Rome.

One of the most astute commentators on the Catholic scene today is John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter. He was present on the papal plane for the press conference heard ’round the world, and had this to write about what united Pope Francis’ remarks on a range of subjects.

Watching World Youth Day from afar, my favourite moment was the address of Pope Francis to the Argentine youth — a meeting he had specially asked to be added to the schedule. Some 5,000 packed the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Sebastian, while another 30,000 waited outside in the rain. The Holy Father gave what is becoming a hallmark of his new pontificate — an address that was spontaneous and passionate that left everyone energized, even if a little unsure of what he meant.

I write just as Pope Francis has arrived in Rio, before any of the major events have taken place. Yet on his travelling day alone, one already sees the hallmarks of reporting on this pontificate — a focus on style over substance.

The two things the world learned about the Holy Father’s departure and arrival was that he carried his own hand luggage on to the plane, and that his more informal motorcade in Rio got lost amid the joyous throngs. Interesting, but irrelevant to what Francis wants the world to hear about Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis is a genuinely humble man of simple tastes, who desires that nothing get in the way of the proclamation of the Gospel. So it must bother him when his comportment draws even more attention to himself, especially when it involves implicit invidious comparisons to his predecessors...

KRAKOW, POLAND - The approval by Pope Francis of a miracle worked through the intercession of Blessed John Paul II was met with great joy in the Polish pope’s hometown, where nary a church can be found without an image of the blessed. Indeed, just last month the John Paul II Be Not Afraid Centre — a religious, educational and cultural complex on the grounds of the Divine Mercy shrine — was dedicated, the crypt chapel of which already contains the relics of John Paul II. So there was joy at the announcement, but not much surprise, even though at less than nine years after his death John Paul’s canonization will set a modern record.