Norman Gilroy was Archbishop in Sydney at the age of 41. He is the first Australian-born Prince of the Church, a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, an Australian-of-the year and was host to the first visit of a reigning Pontiff to Australia. He has always disliked personal publicity, effacing as far as possible Gilroy, the man, from public scrutiny. To many he is little more than a shadowy figure, a wide grin in a thousand newspaper pictures, a grey eminence. Cardinal Gilroy cannot be written off merely as a humble, pious priest.