Boston’s people as integral to its history as landmark buildings
Other than him being a prominent Catholic church leader in America, another reason I loved Cardinal Richard Cushing was that he confirmed me at Gate of Heaven Church in South Boston.
Years later at a charity event at Blinstrubs Village nightclub in South Boston, I told him the story of my confirmation — he asked me what middle name did I take then? I answered, “Leo.” “Wonderful,” the Cardinal said. “Pope Leo XIII was a warrior for social and economic justice, speaking out for hard-working men and women in the world during very tough times. He wrote the most important encyclical in Catholic history, Rerum Novarum in 1891 (on Capital and Labor). He courageously stood up to oppressive European regimes and dictators.”
I admired Pope Leo XIII as much as anybody, I said, I even studied his life while I was in college and graduate school, and always tried to follow his example in government and read everything I could while serving as U.S. ambassador for five years while studying church history and old documents at the Vatican archives.
Last Tuesday started out for me as a rough three-hour neurological examination at Massachusetts General Hospital, but turned out for Kathy and me to be a very happy reflection on my earlier life. We sat on a bench for two hours in Cardinal Cushing Memorial Park on New Chardon Street sipping coffee and talking to several homeless people and young, conscientious hospital workers, who were there to help the homeless group, mostly suffering drug and alcohol addiction.
This is the same park where I often helped light the Christmas tree every year with former West Enders, priests, Protestant ministers, rabbis and my longtime friends, Boston College basketball star and Suffolk University University athletic director Jim Nelson from Cambridge and civic leader and Combat Zone bartender Norman Herr of the West End Neighborhood Association, who always had some food, hats and shoes to share with needy people.
You can travel to any neighborhood in Boston and feel proud to call our favorite city home, and don’t have to be a historian, famous or a prominent person to reflect on its extraordinary history. As I’ve learned over the years, everyone is welcome here and everyone knows your name.
I hear some people complaining about how Boston has changed, well that may be true, but I see a lot of the old Boston in the New Boston as well. You have to look for it in its people, not its buildings. Let’s work hard to keep it that way and build on it for everyone.