Seven years at this, gang... and for what it's worth, this felt like the most intense day of the entire experience.

If there's a way of summing it up quickly, though, it'd seem that -- as tends to happen in the history of the Stateside church -- the twin threads of this Friday run through 452 Madison: as our time's archbishop of New York was called to the Papal "Senate," the alma mater of his last titanic predecessor would be slated to shut its doors for good.

As ever, irony of ironies. Still, it could well be argued that -- even at his considerable peak -- not even the Mighty John O'Connor could've pulled off a booking to announce his own news on the couch of the Today Show... and in a cassock, no less.

Lord knows there's more, so we'll pick up tomorrow, whenever this scribe wakes up. For now, thanks as ever for coming along for the ride; Happy Weekend and goodnight.

-30-