NEW JERSEY
Jersey Journal
By Rev. Alexander Santora/For the Jersey Journal
on November 08, 2016
As cardinal-elect Joseph W. Tobin entered the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart for his press conference on Monday, you couldn’t help but notice that he is a hulk of a man akin to a fullback with a broad, strong face. And this physical trait might have served him well as the oldest of 13 children.
It might also have convinced his high school homeroom teacher back in Detroit not to recommend him for entrance into the Redemptorists because he believed he was a “hoodlum,” according to Tobin. And that’s more incredible knowing that he rose to become the General Superior of the worldwide community in Rome from 1997 to 2009 with over 6,000 priests and brothers serving in 77 countries.
Now he has become the sixth Archbishop of Newark and the first ever as a Cardinal, which is quite intriguing since usually New York and Philadelphia always overshadowed New Jersey. Until now. He is certainly cut from the same cloth as Pope Francis, and Tobin admitted they had become friends for over ten years when they both served on a Vatican Synod back in 2005.
Admitting that Francis did not talk with him before the appointment, he did say of Francis, “He is a bishop. He is my teacher.” And, one of the key reasons he may have come to New Jersey is because it is part of the media capital of the world. He can and will certainly articulate Francis’ policies and vision, especially to a U.S. hierarchy mostly reluctant to embrace Francis’ ecclesiology.
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