Cardinal with ties to Stoney Point is an average Joe
CBC News | Posted: January 1, 2017 11:00 AM | Last Updated: January 3, 2017
Having second highest rank in the Catholic church doesn't stop Cardinal Joseph Tobin from doing what he loves
Before the November nomination ceremony that granted him the second-highest rank in the Catholic Church, Joseph Tobin leaned over to the Pope and asked him just what he was doing.
"Pope Francis came over and gave me a hug and I said to him in Spanish, 'What have you done?' and he started laughing and said, did your mother come?" Tobin recalled with a laugh. "I said we're not talking about my mother."
Tobin's 93-year-old mother, Marie Terese, had made the trip from Stoney Point, Ont., along with 11 of his 12 siblings, to see their brother become a Cardinal — second only to the Pope in the Catholic hierarchy.
"It's a great honour and I look upon it as a new way of serving," said Detroit-born Tobin. "But it's kind of like you're asleep in class and all of a sudden a spotlight comes down on you and everybody turns around to see what happened."
Tobin's ties to Essex County, and to Stoney Point in particular, are strong. His mother spent summers there and permanently moved to the tiny town on the shores of Lake St. Clair almost 40 years ago.
"Essex County, as a little kid, was freedom. It was just a magical place to be," he said.
In later years some of his siblings attended the University of Windsor and, in the early days of his priesthood in Detroit, he said he often worked in the community or would "shoot across the border to get a good Chinese meal."
Despite his elevated position, Tobin is truly an average Joe.
The religious leader is open about his love for Michigan rocker Bob Seger and has been known to spend his mornings in the gym lifting weights with a group he calls his "Band of Brothers."
"I'm not ashamed of what I do and I think I have a particular role to play in the church, but I don't think that separates you," he said. "I usually introduce myself as Joe...if people want to know more, they can ask me."
Tobin credits his father, who died when he was 25, as the hardworking, humble role model of the man he wanted to become. Although his father passed away before he was ordained, Tobin said he thinks his father would be proud of what he has accomplished.
"I think he would say... 'If you're doing what you think God wants you to do, great, but don't be too full of yourself,'" Tobin said.
Friends with the Pope
Tobin said he has known Pope Francis since 2005 when he sat next to him for almost a month during a series of bishop's meetings.
The Cardinal said he suspects the Pope chose him for his new role because he's worked in different cultures for the past 38 years and has international experience.
"Or maybe he wanted somebody to block for him, I'm not sure," Tobin joked.
As one of 120 Cardinals, Tobin will some day be tasked with helping choose the next leader of the Catholic Church, but he said that's a responsibility he hopes he won't have to exercise for quite some time.
"Pope Francis certainly is nobody's fool," he said. "But he also stands on his own values without having to adopt a lot of titles and presumptions of privilege. I would like to emulate that."