MONTREAL - He was a cardinal with a common touch, a street-smart Montrealer who used the media effectively, peppered sermons with references to his beloved Montreal Canadiens, returned his Order of Canada on principle and humbly served his community at soup kitchens and blood donor clinics.

MONTREAL - It was dignified and unpretentious, a funeral fit for Montreal's popular Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte.

MONTREAL - At dawn April 16, before the doors had even opened at 7 a.m., a small crowd and three television crews had already gathered outside Mary Queen of the World Cathedral to pay their respects to Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte.

Hours after his death April 8, Montreal Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte was praised by Quebec City Cardinal Gérald Cyprian Lacroix and the emeritus archbishop of Quebec, Maurice Couture, for his "joie de vivre" and for a communication style that invited open dialogue.

The Quebec Church may have lost legions of worshippers in recent years but it hasn’t lost its sense of humour.

That was evident last week when, with tongue in cheek, the archdiocese of Montreal placed newspaper ads asking the faithful to pray for the Montreal Canadiens.