Yesterday evening, Part 1 of Peter Mansbridge’s interview with Cardinal Marc Ouellet aired on CBC. I didn’t see it until this morning when the interview was posted online. While I think the interview is important (for those non-Cardinal watchers) to be introduced to who could be the next Pope, there’s another part of this interview that I think is important.
Partway through the interview, Mansbridge asks Ouellet the question that any good interviewer would ask: “Do you want to be Pope?” If I recall correctly, Mansbridge wasn’t that direct, but it was clear that was what he was asking. Immediately, Ouellet seems flabbergasted, his face flushes, and he dodges the question. A minute or two later, Mansbridge asks another question that gets to the same point. This time, he asks Ouellet what the important qualities that a “Canadian” could bring to the job of being Pope. Again, Ouellet answers (in his manner, not his words) almost the same way he did the direct question.
Why am I saying all of this?
Canadians and Canadian culture, by their/its very nature, is humble. Ouellet’s got about a 50/50 chance of becoming one of the most “powerful” people in the world and he’s still over-the-top humble.
I’ve included Part 1 of the interview below. Part 2 airs tonight.
Jeremiah Stanghini 
While your point is well taken, I wasn’t implying that the Pope is humble (nor was I saying he isn’t). I was speaking more of Canadians. Of course, I wasn’t presenting any data with my claim that Canadians are more humble, but a quick Google search does return many results for Canadians being humble. I don’t think that the Pew Research Center has done any polls on it, but it’d be an interesting hypothesis to test.
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