Church’s most classically Capuchin prelate reaches milestone at 80

ROME – American Catholicism marked a quiet milestone yesterday, as Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston turned 80 years old on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. It’s apt that his birthday coincides with the annual celebration of the great apostles of Rome, because it’s arguable that no other U.S. prelate has ever come quite as close to becoming the Bishop of Rome himself as the now-octogenarian Capuchin.

Having turned 80, O’Malley now is no longer eligible to participate in the conclave that will elect the next pope...