At 9AM, we were on our way to the “Raccolte di Cardinale Giacomo Lecaro”, an art museum attached to an art residence. When we got there, the woman at the desk told us Cardinal Lercaro (d. 1976 at 84 years) was a most unusual man, and she hoped we would enjoy the museum. We did. There were many unusual items from fossils, to work by Picasso, to Renaissance madonnas, and very contemporary sculpture. We were the only visitors, and the museum was free (donations accepted).
Of course, when I got home I had to look up Lercaro, and he was a very unusual man. He was nearly elected pope, and would have been a pope very much like the current Francesco. Lercaro’s motto, which he had inscribed upon the altar of the Cathedral of San Pietro in Bologna, was, “If we share the bread of heaven, how can we not share our bread here on earth?” He had 70 underprivileged students living with him, and he was an outspoken liberal, a bit like Bernie Sanders. His undoing was his opposition to the Vietnam War, when he was asked to step down by the pope. You can just imagine how good it felt to know about all this, and visit the museum, and think you found an old friend. | 
