Abp. Foley was in St. Peter's square - incognito- during today's announcement!

Well, not intentionally incognito, but without his "glad rags on", as he put it to CNS:

U.S. Cardinal-designate John P. Foley, a Philadelphia native, was standing in the middle of St. Peter's Square among a sea of 30,000 pilgrims when Pope Benedict XVI named him a cardinal.

Though he knew the previous day he was going to be one of 23 people to receive a red hat, the Oct. 17 announcement was going to fall on the same morning he had a follow-up visit with his eye doctor.

"I didn't get back in time to be there at the beginning of the audience and I didn't have my glad rags on," meaning his formal clerical dress, so he said he just snuck inconspicuously into the middle of the crowd.

....

He said a pilgrim standing next to him asked him if he knew any of the men the pope had just named to be cardinal. "

I said 'Yes, I know quite a few of them.' And I said 'I am one of them,' Well, I don't think he believed me," he said laughing.

"What would I be doing standing out in the middle of St. Peter's Square, you know. But I thought it would be nice to hear the announcement anyway," he said happily.

Ah, to have been there!

I like the joyful, off-the-cuff style of the Abp.'s remarks. It's entirely appropriate to what is - politics aside - a very joyful occasion for the Church and for the men nominated. No wonder he was in charge of communication.