"The Crazed Genius Vaticanista"

Believe it or not, the above accolade is not one I could've given myself.... Thanks to the Boston Globe's Michael Paulson for that and his excellent coverage from the roof of Bernini's Colonnade -- where, saints be praised, there's WiFi.

As Cardinal Sean O'Malley knelt before the Pope to receive his red hat and the titular church of S. Maria della Vittoria, a prominent American in the Piazza was heard to immediately exclaim, "LEPANTO!"

It was a watershed moment for Christian-Muslim relations.

Right now, the remains of the crowd are in disarray trying to find cabs, but I'm told it's not all that crowded, at least in the relative -- i.e. John Paul funeral -- sense.

"It was half full," a friend says. "If you took out Caffarra's people [from Bologna], the US people and the Spaniard -- that's four [pilgrimages] -- there'd be no one.... OK, maybe a couple of Poles. But that's it."

Well, if anything, that means that everyone got a good seat. Not as good as the gents pictured above, but still.


PHOTO: AP/Andrew Medichini

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