Famous People In Alternate Realities V.2

His Eminence Henry Lillis Crosby (1903-1982), Cardinal of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Known in his youth by the nickname of "Bing", Crosby entered Loyola after graduation from Gonzaga with the intent of taking holy orders. His genial, engaging personality won him friends rapidly in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church both in the United States and at the Vatican, allowing a meteoric rise to an archbishopric by age 40, and elevation to the position of Cardinal at age 50. It was widely held that had Crosby been born in his ancestral nation of Ireland, he would have been considered for the papacy upon the death of Pope Pius XII. As it was, he became an intimate advisor to Pope John XXIII, serving in a capacity that amounted to a deputy pope for the western hemisphere, though he held no official title to that effect. His personality, speaking ability, and not-inconsiderable musical gifts help turn the tide of decline of the Catholic Church in North America--and his progressive position on permitting priests to marry, though not realized during his lifetime, may be regarded as his crowning achievement when it was instituted in 1997.
 
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