The Cardinal-Elect Brislin I Know

On Sunday, Pope Francis named 21 new cardinals. Among them was Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, who will become South Africa’s third cardinal. Southern Cross editor GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER gives his personal view of the cardinal-elect.

On Saturday, I attended the launch of a book of tributes to the late Fr Albert Nolan OP. Sitting in front of me, in the second row at the side, was Archbishop Stephen Brislin. He moved places to sit with the speakers after making his address, but he forgot his grey cap beneath his chair.

The archbishop had to leave early. As he was on his way out, I made sure that he got his stray grey hat. A day later, Archbishop Brislin found out that he would be getting a red hat.

Pope Francis’ announcement at the Angelus of July 9 that Archbishop Brislin would be among 21 new cardinals came as a surprise. I had always thought, and said as much, that Brislin met all criteria for a good cardinalate appointment, but I did not think that South Africa would ever have two living cardinals.

The pope’s choice of Stephen Brislin makes perfect sense to me. To me, Brislin modelled the Church of Pope Francis — one in which the law requires a pastoral application predicated on mercy — before there was a Pope Francis.

I first met Brislin when he was made bishop of Kroonstad, in the Free State, in 2007. He visited Cape Town and popped in at The Southern Cross. I liked the man immediately. In 2008 I invited him to write the Southern Cross Christmas editorial, something of an annual honour which began with a man who should have been a cardinal, Archbishop Denis Hurley.

That Christmas editorial was typical of the man: attentive, astute, articulate and accessible. I have had the pleasure of accompanying the cardinal-elect on four pilgrimages, going to Italy, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Turkey. In all these places, he celebrated Masses and gave homilies that were just like that: thoughtful and clear. Invariably, they enriched my faith.

Cardinal-elect Brislin is a man of justice. He is no firebrand. He speaks in a measured voice that will foment no revolution. He will give counterarguments a fair hearing. But do not mistake that for a lack of commitment to social justice. I have been told that his work for Justice & Peace as a priest in Kroonstad commanded respect.

Internationally, Archbishop Brislin has been a regular participant in a group of Catholic bishops called the Holy Land Coordination, who regularly visit Israel and Palestine. One year, half of the group of bishops was permitted by the Israeli blockade to enter Gaza. Brislin was in the group that was denied entry. The bishops declined the offer to be taken back to their hotels. For eight hours they remained at the checkpoint, until Israel finally opened the gates to Gaza. Brislin and fellow cardinal-elect Pierbattista Pizzaballa OFM, patriarch of Jerusalem, will have a lot to talk about, especially about how the Church can better show solidarity with the oppressed Christians of the Holy Land.

Brislin may not be a firebrand, but his comments on public affairs are worth noting — when he issues them. During the Zuma era, there was a big protest outside parliament (and therefore also outside St Mary’s Cathedral). I was standing with Archbishop Brislin in the shadow of the superannuated statue of Louis Botha when a reporter of a community radio station suddenly appeared, asking Brislin for an interview.

The archbishop readily agreed and spoke fluently about the great issues facing our nation, off the cuff and with admirable clarity. As a journalist who can appreciate a good interview, I was impressed. I hope as cardinal, Brislin will be able to claim a place in the public discourse. South Africa will be richer for it.

I believe the Church, locally and globally, will be richer for having Brislin in the College of Cardinals. As such, he will be among the electors who will be tasked to choose a new pope, when that sad day comes. I’ll stick my neck out and predict that Stephen Brislin will be traded as papabile. And I hope that, if it is possible, that cup will be passed from him, for being a pope is a terrible burden. Being a bishop is bad enough!

But, as I have said above — and as I have told him personally — Stephen Brislin is cut from a similar cloth to that of Pope Francis. Both are reasonable men who see Jesus through the prism of mercy and love. Both are doctrinally conservative; neither advocates changing the doctrines of the Church for the sake of it. But neither of them places a priority on the law when issues may be addressed with mercy, empathy and love. Both see the Church as a place of healing and inclusion, rather than one of judgment and exclusion.

It is one of those divine twists that on the day before he was named a cardinal, Brislin spoke about Fr Albert Nolan OP, author of the great 1976 book Jesus Before Christianity. In that groundbreaking book, Nolan considered Jesus stripped of all the doctrines, dogmas and rituals of the Church. While the doctrines, dogmas and rituals have their place, Nolan calls on Christians to return to the Jesus in the Gospels. I have never had the opportunity to discuss Nolan with Brislin, but I have a feeling the cardinal-elect is an admirer of Nolan’s approach.

Our new cardinal is a reticent man, an introvert. Even with the red hat, he won’t be the kind of gladhander who puts on a jolly public face that disguises a nasty private streak. The man you see in public is the man you see in private. His gentle manner and conciliatory demeanour are authentic — but do not confuse that with a lack of steel when that is required. My experience as a layman might differ from that of priests under his authority.

Brislin is a cautious man who does not enjoy confrontation. He chooses his battles carefully. Where he sees conflict, he prefers to assume the role of a mediator. I know Archbishop Brislin to be an excellent builder of bridges.

In private, as far as my experiences of him go, Stephen Brislin is a man aware of his position but not particularly impressed by it. He can handle being the focus of attention, but he doesn’t seek (or probably enjoy) the centre. I suspect that being a bishop is a burden on the man, as it is to so many others who bear that title. At heart, Brislin is a pastor.

Archbishop Brislin has a nice sense of humour, even of the self-deprecating kind. Over the years, we have developed a store of private jokes; most of them have the archbishop as the punchline (when it doesn’t involve my own loss of hair). I once promised him that what happens on pilgrimage stays on pilgrimage, but he will forgive me for sharing this little anecdote, which the archbishop himself shared on the bus with fellow pilgrims the next day.

During one pilgrimage, an attractive woman found that her hotel room was not equipped with a hairdryer with which she could maintain her brunette mane. In her desperation, she knocked on the archbishop’s door, adjacent to her room, and asked him: “Do you have a hairdryer?” The archbishop, not a hirsute man, replied: “Do I look like I have use of a hairdryer?”

It will be strange to see the archbishop, whose sartorial tastes emphasise muted colours, in cardinalate scarlet. There will be occasions when Cardinal Brislin will have to wear the red because protocol and occasion demand it — but I do expect to see that grey cap again.