Your servant and His Holiness

This photo was taken in the summer of 2002. HH was kind enough to grant me a private audience in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in his spare time. The hall in which we spoke was owned by one Madame Tussaud, who was unable to attend this unprecedented event.

As Il Papa stepped off the plane, the Dutch bishops scurried under refrigerators or chewed new nests in the walls.

And that was the day HH told me he was going to make me a cardinal in pectore. I protested; "Your Holiness, I'm married!" But he would have none of it. Since the Vatican is unable to find the documents to prove who the new cardinal is, I've decided to live out my days in prayerful obscurity.