Melanie McDonagh gives a personal view of the elevation of Timothy Radcliffe OP
ROME – It is, of course, a great honour to be invited to attend the creation of cardinals at the Vatican but it takes willpower to get there. I was at Timothy Radcliffe’s elevation yesterday and I thought with my own special number to obtain my ticket, it would be a breeze. It so wasn’t.
In the first place the directions said that I should go to a bronze door at the end of the Bernini colonnade, which is quite the address, but at the end of the colonnade there is no bronze door to be seen. I went up to the nearest police to ask for the Prefect’s Office and they despatched me with a wave of the arm back in the direction I came from to what they assured me was a white building. It was not to be found. I returned to them to find someone who seemed in the same position asking the same question; he too was waved towards the exit. We scouted about hopefully looking for a bronze door; then my companion had the genius idea of asking a nun. She pointed in the direction behind the police and said “that way”. Friends, if you are ever in doubt at the Vatican, just follow a nun. You can’t go wrong.
