BOSTON (MA)
Irish Central

JAMES O’SHEA @irishcentral February 09,2014

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, who is personally close to the pope, says he worries that people expect too much from him, especially on visits he makes outside the Vatican, stressing he was not a young man.

He was speaking in a lengthy interview in the Boston Globe.

The cardinal joined 77-year-old Francis on a visit to the Italian city of Assisi on Oct. 4, and saw the incredible pressure he was under.

“They dragged him to every cave, every altar, and every crypt,” he said. “Everywhere he would go, someone would stand up and say, ‘This is the first time a pope has ever come here.’ I kept thinking, ‘He shouldn’t be here this time!’ ”