"AND FOR THE OTHERS… YOU SING!"

BY: Michael A. Aun, FIC, LUTCF, CSP, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame

We Catholics collect saints… Every now and then we get one we have to throw back, almost like an over-the-limit fishing thing…. a Saint-recall, if you will.

There he was, minding his own business, enjoying sainthood tenure when all of a sudden the Pope calls him back in… Saint Christopher became Mr. Christopher… just like that. I used to tell my insurance sales force, "If you think selling life insurance is difficult, how would you like to have a whole warehouse full of Saint Christopher medals… excuse me, Mr. Christopher medals. Now there's a tough sale."

I have represented the Knights of Columbus insurance since 1974. We sell life insurance to Roman Catholic men, who are members of our fraternity and to their families. We're the largest Catholic fraternal organization in the world and one of the largest insurance companies, but we only sell to our own members.

One of the great works of charity this terrific organization provides is something called the "Vicarious Christi Fund," which is a $20 million endowment earmarked for the Holy Father. The interest off this fund each year is given to the Pope for his private charities.

Because of this unique relationship between the church and my company, we have had the occasion to have a private audience with the Pope from time to time. Heck, $20 million will get you dinner at the Vatican.

In the mid nineties, our family, in fact, did get to meet Pope John Paul II as we had such a private audience in the Vatican. Christine and I along with my twin sons, Cory and Jason, got to meet and shake hands with the Pope in his private chambers. It was a high point in my life, to say the least.

While in Rome, it coincidentally happened that a conclave of sorts was going on during our visit. Many of the American Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals were in Rome at the same time.

We had the opportunity of meeting them at a lovely banquet hosted on one of the Seven Hills of Rome in a setting unlike none I have ever attended. I had the privilege of meeting one of my old Sunday school teachers, who was a Priest at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Columbia, SC. As a child growing up in Lexington, there was not Catholic Church, so we commuted to Columbia to attend Mass each Sunday.

That young priest was Father Joseph Bernardin, who later became Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. We had the honor of meeting him in Rome at the banquet honoring the Catholic Clergy. I was surprised that he remembered the Aun name. He had taught many of my ten brothers and sisters while at St. Peter's, and my late parents knew his parents quite well.

I recall vividly that we were enjoying cocktails outside the banquet chamber as the sun was setting. We were chatting under one of the glorious trees. I had a lovely conversation with the Cardinal recalling his days at the University of South Carolina. He actually asked me how the Gamecocks were doing. He had originally enrolled in USC to pursue a Medical Degree but ended up in the Seminary.

While talking with Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, the birds had come home to roost in the huge tree under which we were chatting. In the course of our conversation, one of the birds, which obviously enjoyed a bountiful day of scavenging, decided to do what birds do when they eat their fill- it voided itself. Unfortunately, the good Cardinal was right in his path.

Let the record reflect that I am pretty good on my feet and always have a comment in my hip pocket. However, you just don't slam-dunk a Cardinal when a bird poops on his hat. Cardinal Bernardin felt the poop hit his beanie. He reached up to see what it was and realized that he now had poop on his hand.

I didn't know where to go with this, but I knew that no confession I would ever make again would forgive me for making one of my typical off-the-cuff "poop comments." So, for once in my life, I kept my mouth shut. I did not say squat, mainly because I wanted to hear how the good Cardinal was going to deal with this.

Realizing that he had been nailed by a wayward bird from above, he looked up at the tree, looked down at his hand, and then looked back up at the tree and said… "and… for the others… you sing!" What a classic response by a classy guy.