Gentle Eminence: A Life of Cardinal Flahiff

John T. Shea is the former director of the Social Action Department of
the Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops.

This modest volume by P. Wallace Platt, a priest of the congregation of
Saint Basil, describes the rich life of one of Canada’s most loved
senior churchmen. The book follows the subject from his simple origins
as the son of an innkeeper in Paris, Ontario, to the lofty precincts of
the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, where he deliberated within the College
of Cardinals in not one but two Sacred Consistories in the selection of
the last two popes.

Platt takes us through the various stages of George Flahiff’s life,
from his early student days to his position as professor of medieval
history at the Institute of Medieval Studies at the University of
Toronto. Later, as superior general of the Basilian Fathers, he was, in
1961, chosen as the archbishop of Winnipeg. He was well known there as a
wise pastor and as a courteous man of deep spirituality who loved the
multilingual and multiethnic flavor of his region.

In 1969, he was named a cardinal of the Catholic Church and, in 1971,
became a member of a delegation of four Canadian bishops who attended
the second Synod of Bishops in Rome (which discussed the themes of
social justice and the priesthood). It was during this meeting that he
attracted some notoriety for his strong statement on the importance of
women playing a more prominent role in the life of the church.

During this same synod, the Canadian bishops and priests, through the
voice of Bishop Alexander Carter of Sault Ste. Marie, called for a new
look at the issue of compulsory celibacy and the establishment of a
married priesthood. Platt, however, makes no mention of Flahiff’s
views on such a significant development of the ministry.

Finally, in the chapter “The Sunset and the Sorrow,” Platt treats
with great sensitivity Cardinal Flahiff ’s difficult last years before
his death in 1989.

Gentle Eminence is an excellent and well-written biography of a
well-loved, kind, and sensitive Canadian.