The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-01
THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS.

THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS.
There is tendency, which finds cx-
preston in the dispatches, to urge the
claim of English~speaking Catholics for
better representation III the cardinal
ate of the Roman Catholic church,
This tendency, however, is not one that
is likely to receive much recognition in
Rome; for the cardinalate is not made
up by representation of numbers in
various localities where the church has
membership. 1t does not assume to be,
and it never has been. representative
body in the popular or political sense.
The government of tho church. cspo-
cially III the United States, Is not one of
a representative character. 1T has more
distinct affinity TO the government of
Territories of tho United States under
the authority of the General Govern
ment with the representative Delegate
cut out, than it has TO any other form
OF government that is familiar in this
country.
The Pope, as head of the Roman
Catholic church, is the supreme author
ity in all church matters. The govern
ment of the church follows more nearly
the fashion of the government of tho
Roman empire than any other form
of government now known in the world.
As the object Of the government Of the
Roman empire was TO keep the control
Of affairs at Rome, so that is the policy
and always has been the practice Of
the Roman Catholic church 1T is the
only policy which would serve TO obtain
immediate action IN case there were
any emergency requiring the general
action of the church through the ear
dinalate. While the Pope is in health
and in the exercise Of his functions,
the cardinals are not much heard from
by the church at large; their great
activities come in on the death of Pope
and when the immediate assemblnge of
the cardinal body which elects the sue.
cessor is urgent It is not so much a
question then of representing the
Catholic world in all It's branches and
localities as of keeping up the regular.
ity of succession, and holding fast to
the rules and precedents that from im-
memorial time have governed. In order
that these prime objects shall have their
perfect and immediate expression, il is
necessary for the cardinals TO be at
hand without delay. This has always
been the sentiment and the policy of
the church. 1t is not likely to be much
diverged from now or in the future,
The college OF cardinals comprises
six cardinal bishops, all of whom are
Italians; there are also in the body
forty-one cardinal priests, twenty-one
of whom are Italians; and eleven car
dinal deacons, six of whom are Italians.
So that good working majority of the
college is composed Of Italians who can
be Immediately at hand in case of any
crisis in church affairs. 1t is not likely
that this distribution Of the power of
the cardinalate will ever be changed,
There are four Spanish cardinal priests,
four French, two German, three Aus
trian, one Bohemian, one Hungarian,
two Irish, one Portuguese, one Sicilian,
and one American. There is no English
cardinal. The college comprises also
eleven cardinal deacons, including the
Papal MajorDomo; including him, of
these six are Italians, one from South
America, two Spaniards, ono German,
and one Hungarian. Although South
America is nominally. at least, Roman
Catholic, there is no cardinal priest or
cardinal bishop from any country of
South America.
The cardinalate is made up, in fact,
for the purposes of the church, and not
for any popular movement or purpose.
This has been the strength of the
church in the past, and will continue
TO be so in the future. The fact that
there are forty odd million Catholics
of the glo.Saxou y race, as a recent
dispatch puts 1t, with no ratio of rep
resentation in the college of cardinals,
has nothing TO do with the matter,
Inasmuch as the Catholic church docs
not and never has pretended or claimed
to he governed by the populace, the
dragging in Of the numbers of the Catho.
lies in connection with representation i'll
the cardinalate with the assumption
that this counts. is entirely cxtraneous;
and, being false assumption, viii re-
ceive no consideration in Rome.
PROVERBS AND PHRASES.