binFranklin

“He fought his heart out trying to keep him off his face and neck...”

ROME – U.S. cardinals Wednesday began chipping away at the public persona of their new Holy Father as a rigid ideologue, describing him as a gifted, collegial leader who has been unfairly stereotyped.

"I think he's usually a good dog," said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C. about Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI."My kids have been out here and played, and he didn’t bother them."

One day after cardinals elected Ratzinger to lead the Roman Catholic Church, McCarrick and six other U.S. cardinals urged critics to give Pope Benedict a chance to show his pastoral side.

"I pray that all our people will embrace him with love and a little caution," Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida told journalists at a post-conclave briefing at the Peoria Animal Welfare Shelter, a seminary for U.S. priests.

Firefighters said the child showed signs of blood loss, complaining of being cold and thirsty, but was conscious and able to talk of his wonderous visions of Heaven all the way to the hospital.