The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-03-23
THE RED CAP.

THE RED CAP.
THE CREATION OF NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
OF THE PRINCES OF THE CHURCH-How
THE HONOR Is CONFERRED.
The New York World discourses editori-
ally on the nationality of the cardinals. Of
the Catholic church: With the sccsssions OF
Cardinals Manning and McCioskey to its
numbers, the sacred College of Cardinals"
will contain three Engiish-speaking mem
bars. a thing noteworthy of itself, as being,
we believe, Unprecedented since the time OF
/ Henry VIII. When Cardinal Pole died, in
1858. he was the sole Engllsb-speak-
| ing Prince of the Church.
] the Scottish Cardinal Beaton having been
improved off the earth" by party OF
jealous reformers twelve years before. Car
dinsl De York, the last prince of the direct
male line OF the StuartS, died near Rome in
| 1907, and no new English Cardinal was
made until the nomination OF Cardinal
Weld, a kinsman of the first husband of
George Tvs first wife, in 1880. Cardinal
| Welddied in 1887. The purple was conferred
upon the late Cardinal Wiseman. to the
horror and alarm of Lord John Russell, in
| 1850. DIR. Cullen, the Catholic archbishop OF
| Dublin, was made Cardinal in 1866. The
three cardinals, archbishops OF Westmin-
ster, Dublin and New York. will now rep
resent the English speaking Catholic world in
a college OF 81 members. Ii may be interesting
to see what proportions are borne TO eacn
other in the college by the different nation
alities. OF course Italy comes first. The
dean of the Sacred College ia an Italian, Car
diral Patrizi, bishop of Ostia and Velletri,
now a venerable man of II years. After
to- morIow's proclamations, Italy will count,
with the dean, no fewer than 80 cardinals in
the three orders, bishops, priests and dea-
C ms, all the cardinal-bishops, six in num-
Der, being natives Of Italy. Austria and
L nnnh NnrE 80
cardinals, two of whom, by the way, It is
worth noting, are
NATIVES OF THE NEW WORLD,
Cardinal De La Lsstrey Cuesta, born in
Cuba in 1903, and now archbishop OF Seville
and Cardinal Moreno, born in Guatemala in
1917, and now archbishop of Valladodid.
Germany will have one cardinal with the
nomination of Count Ledochowski, arch
bishop of Posen, and Belgium, which has
been irreverently styled the bantam
| chicken of the church, one, also, with the
| nomination OF Mgr. Descbamps, archbishop
of Malines or Mecnlin. So that, on the whole,
the English speaking Catholics can scarcely
complain of being inadequately represented
| in the highest constitutional body known to
their church. AS we have. already planned,
however, the cardinalate has no direct rel
erence TO he administration of the church.
| but is in its very essence an electoral body
designed to intervene between the church
| at large and the papacy, and to control the
succession to that supreme office. So
far as the Catholics of the United States
! are concerned. therefore, the elevation
of their archbishop in New York to
this princely rank must really be regarded
| as in the main intended to show the recog-
| milton by Rome OF the growth and import
ance OF American Catholicism. So far as
the really important electoral function OF
| al 10 "a frol afa la n1 hos
taken, it will be seen. to give Italy precisely
the number necessary if the Italian cardi-
nails act together to control the college. A
two-thirds vote elects the pope, and OF the
| 81 cardinals Italy, after to- norrow's procla-
nations, will have exactly So.
coNFERRING THE PURPLE.
The Herald tells how the honor of the car
dinalate is given: A newly appointed car
dual receives a red cap and a red
bat as marks or symbols of his Office.
According to the usage of macy
centuries the cap is given to the car
dinals by the pope il they are at Rome, aud
| is sent to them if they are absent; but the
| hat has never been conferred except by the
pops's own hand. The red cap is
| in the nature of notifications; the
comforting of the red bat is a
full investiture. (which completes the title to
t 10 Office. The cardinals cap is called ber-
retta, and the statement of our intelligent
correspondent at Rome that the berretta is
to be sent at once by special messengers and
the cardinals hat to follow atterward in the
care of an ecclesiastic of higher dignity, in-
dicstes that the old distinction between the
| two is to be observed, while releasing the
American cardinal from strics observance OF
the established ecclesiastical etiquette. The
| berretta will be an authentic Of
fetal notice of his elevation, and the
| sending of the bat by church dignl-
tary dispenses the archbishop from the duty
of The European cardinals TO go to Rome
aud receive it from the hands OF the Pope.
| The berretta, or red cap, is to be sent at
oncs, without waiting until after the equi-
noctisl storms before The papsl messengers
cross the ocean, which, we suppose, is the
reason of the inquiry respecting the safest
| lines of steamships and their days of sailing
The Catholics ofthis country will think the
value oithe Pope's recognition or
COMPLIMENT Is ENHANCED
by the deviation from usage which exempts
the American Cardinal from the duty of a
long journey to Rome on point of cere
monial etiquette. This, at least, is the in
terpretation which we put upon the dis
crepancy between our dispatch fIom Rome
aud the ordinary usage TO which the
cardinals hat could be received only
tom the hands of the pope himself
Archbishop McCloskey acquires new dig
Ditv, but no additional power by this gracious
md complimentary act. He is precluded
10y distance from participating in some of
the most important functions OF the Sacred
College. The most important of ALL that of
elecling new pope, although in the course
of nature il must soon devclve on the Col
lege Of Cardinals. must be performed under
conditions which will not permit Cardinal
McClo-key to take part in it. The
conclave meets for this purpose on the
tenth day after the derniss of a pope
a period so short that an American
Cardinal could not be present unless he
should happen accidentally to be ia Europe
at the time. The other functions of the
cardinals are chiefly local, appertaining to
the civil and ecclesiastical administration of
the papacy. The cardinals have always been
the princes and chief dignitaries of the
Roman States. Daring the long period be-
fore the yope was stripped of his temporal