Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope John Paul II’s visit to these Isles will undoubtedly rank near the top of its Church history. The initiation of the Pope’s visit to the UK in June 1982 was in the first place, apparently accidental.

Cardinal Hume, a true Englishman, was with Pope John Paul, and as any English gentleman might, as a matter of good manners, enquired when the Pope would visit England. The Pope was not familiar with such foreign nuances and asked Cardinal Hume when would be convenient. The Westminster Cardinal rushed to phone his counterpart in Edinburgh to warn him.

During his visit to Scotland in 1982 Pope John Paul was scheduled to stay at the residence of Cardinal Gordon Gray in Edinburgh’s Morningside. The cardinal had to make many arrangements, but near the top of the list was the fate of his Cairngorm terrier Rusty. Would the Pope resent the dog’s presence?

I recall the cardinal phoning me to say that Rusty would be boarded out, but the Vicar of Christ did meet Rusty and was even photographed with him.

On another occasion, I instigated brevity. Our cottage in Buttevant in County Cork, which we had acquired in 1966, did not have a telephone. We used O’Neil’s telephone, the grocer and publican, who told me that Cardinal Gray had phoned and asked me to call him. It was a pay phone and I had a limited number of coins.

The cardinal began in an unusually stern voice to complain about a story in our paper, whereupon I interrupted to tell him that I had money for probably another five minutes. The cardinal’s anger turned to laughter: “I suppose that puts my complaint in perspective,” was the cardinal’s retort.

In 1985 when I went to see Cardinal Gray, who was Archbishop of Edinburgh for 34 years, he complained about a very bad back and told me that he would be asking the Pope to accept his resignation. But the cardinal was worried about a suitable date.

I speculated, was it because of ordinations, confirmations or some other Liturgical event, but these were not his worries. “You see,” Cardinal Gray, a keen gardener, said “would the new archbishop want me to plant the bulbs in the garden or would he rather do it himself?”

When Cardinal Gray retired in 1985 it was to ‘The Hermitage’ in the grounds of Gillis College in Edinburgh. Cardinal Keith O’Brien named it after Bishop Gillis. He had been the Vicar Apostolic, who was responsible for bringing the Ursuline Sisters to Edinburgh, the first Religious to return to Scotland after the Reformation. Bishop Gillis is buried in the Crypt of the Chapel at Gillis Centre—close by his friend, John Menzies, who had been a great benefactor to the Catholic Church in Scotland.

Gillis College at that time was the Archdiocesan Seminary that Cardinal O’Brien had moved from Drygrange, where Archbishop Gray had originally founded the Seminary. It was fortuitous at the time of the Ursulines moving out of their school and convent that the property became available.

Cardinal Gray’s great friend Sir Tom Farmer, then chairman of Kwik Fit, the massive firm he had created, had the small house adapted to the needs of a man not in the best of health. As the cardinal put it to me in a letter: “His former residence was tied to the job.”

Two years or so after his retirement I asked the cardinal about his successor Archbishop (created a cardinal in 2003) Keith O’Brien. His reply was succinct: “As a pastoral bishop, brilliant, as a gardener useless.”

His love for gardening was aptly illustrated when in retirement, in 1987 he wrote to me: “After a glorious week of sunshine, the rain came last night. So the onions are swelling, the tomatoes are beginning to blush and the parsnips are smiling.”

Although retirement, because of his ill health, was at first welcome he later wrote: “Retirement; after a few months the novelty wears off. The days are long. No more full diaries! And as one grows old, one becomes just a little talkative and reminiscent—with too few victims to listen to one’s meanderings.”

When Marie and I visited him, a wee dram was always forthcoming to accompany the smoke from both our pipes. Marie, my wife, put up with both indulgences, even though she indulged in neither.

In 1987, Marie and I were in Edinburgh for my son Patrick’s wedding, which Cardinal Gray attended. He said he would not officiate in case in the last minute his back let him down and he could not do it, but he did come to the cathedral for it, in full regalia. We had brought our Welsh Springer-Spaniel, Basil with us. The cardinal had some misgivings whether his Cairngorm Terrier, Rusty, would welcome him. He did. Subsequently he sent us a photograph with a short note: “I am sorry about the enclosed photograph. Basil obviously does not realise that he has no right to black out Rusty, a member of the Papal household on intimate terms with the Holy Father and Mother Teresa. Well Westminster always steals the headlines!”

Basil Hume was then Archbishop of Westminster and we had named our dog after him. When our dog, Basil, became ill, I received a letter from the cardinal assuring me that he had seen Rusty in the oratory, obviously praying for Basil.

In 1993 I attended my old friend Cardinal Gray’s funeral in Edinburgh. Sir Tom Farmer, a true friend of the cardinal’s, was one of the ushers at the funeral and like many others it was obvious how upset he was to lose his friend. Archbishop O’Brien said the Mass and paid great tribute to his predecessor in his homily.