Nov. 19 installation will add another defining chapter to friendship of Cardinal-designate Tobin, Pope Francis

Pope Francis greets Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin
of Indianapolis after presenting him with a pallium
during a Mass marking the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul
in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on June 29, 2013.
(CNS photo/Alessia Giuliani, Catholic Press Photo)

As our assistant editor John Shaughnessy makes his way to Rome today, we'll share a story he has in this Friday's edition of The Criterion:
 
As Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin headed to Rome to be installed as a cardinal by Pope Francis on Nov. 19, he naturally thought again of all the ways his life has changed in the past six weeks.
 
He also thought of how those life-changing moments have been shaped by the relationship he has formed during the past 11 years with the pope.
 
After all, it was Pope Francis who announced on Oct. 9 that Archbishop Tobin would be one of the Church’s 17 new cardinals. And 13 days later, Cardinal-designate Tobin learned that Pope Francis was reassigning him from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis to lead the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J.—a move that became official on Nov. 7.
 
Returning to Italy for his installation as a cardinal in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Cardinal-designate Tobin is also returning to the place he first met Pope Francis.
 
The year was 2005, and the two men were participants in a meeting of the Synod of Bishops. For the better part of four weeks, they sat next to each other, talking about the issues and getting to know each other through their shared ability to speak Spanish.
 
At the time, Cardinal-designate Tobin was the superior general of the Redemptorist order while Pope Francis was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires. The synod meeting took place shortly after the conclave of 2005 that elected Benedict XVI as pope—a conclave in which many observers noted that Cardinal Bergoglio likely finished in second place.
 
“I told the cardinal later on that he was my mother’s candidate [in 2005],” Cardinal-designate Tobin recalled, citing the way his mother appreciated how then-Cardinal Bergoglio lived in a small apartment, took a bus to work and cooked his own meals. “He got quite a laugh out of that.”
From that moment on, whenever their paths have crossed, Pope Francis has always asked Cardinal-designate Tobin about his mother, Marie. 
 
Read the whole story here