The Washington herald., 1911-11-26
ROME FILLED WITH PILGRIMS
FOR THE COMING fCONSISTORY
Scene VIII Be Most Brilliant of Centuries and the
Eternal City Is Showing Deep Interest $3.50
in American Cardinals.

I many to be the real stronghold OF tho
| Catholic faith.
The creation OF so many cardinals at
one time, though made necessary by
deaths in the Sacred College, is sx-
| traordinary, and has only been duplicated.
| or surpassed n the Middle Ages. The
| largest number OF cardinals created in
/ the history Of the church was during the
| life Of Leo x, who is credited with the
creation of thirty dignitaries-some his
| torians hold there were thirty-one. All
q still earlier period Boniface VII cre-l
ated twenty-nine, all except three be-
| ing Italians. From these high marks
| to the present time, history shows that
from time to time as many as fifteen
to twenty red hats have made their ap-
pearance at one time, but not for gen.
erations has the present number been
duplicated.
The elevation Of the American preI-
ates to the Office Of cardinal win mott
increase their Jurisdiction or authority
in Catholic affairs in the United States,
but 1t will give them a place among thsI
advisers OF the Pope in his task OF rul-i
ing the whole church. Cardinals notl
resident in Rome attend very few OIL
the consistories, however. They make
the journey to Rome when a new PopeI
Is to be elected, but, aside from that,
their ofice is hardly more than an hon.
orary one.
There are three orders OF cardinals-l
the cardinal bishops, the cardinal
priests, and the cardinal deacons. OF
the cardinal bishops there are never
more than six-at present there are but
five. The full number OF cardinal
priests is fifty, and the-cardinaI deecons
fourteen, making total Of seventy.
These seventy princes Of the church |
compose the Sacred College. or College
of Cardinals. a body ruling over 200,0 900
Catholics throughout Christendom, and
one Of the most conservative legislative |
bodies in the world. The Sacred CoIlege
settles all questions, always on the same
principles and always in the same way,
that arise among Catholics in over fifty
different countries. Extreme caution also
marks this body's deliberations, and 10
is sometimes years, sometimes decades,
and even centuries before It's mandate
is delivered.
TIL Sacred College Is not always In
session The majority Of its members
reside elsewhere than in Rome. Those
who make their homo in Rome, however,
and who invariably compose the six
cardinal bishops, have charge Of the va
rious department of the central pom
the Curia-
Only Italian as Pope.
Since it became known that eighteen
new cardinals were to be invested with
the red hat there has been considerable
talk among American Catholics, both here
and In the United States, over the pos
sibifity Of an American cardinal being
raised to the chair Of ST. Peter at the
next conclave. There IS, however, not
the remotest possibility Of an American
Pope occupying the Vatican, according
to the best-informed authorities.
Such a move would be in violation OF
a species Of century-old myth or un-l
written law which says that the Pope
must be an Italian And, aside from the
preJudices Of the Italian majority in the
Sacred College, II would be too much to
expect the italian government to submit
to the presence at the Vatican, in the
very center Of the national capital, Of a
prelate of allen birth, belonging to some
nation that might or might not at any
mop1ent be hostile to Italy, and yet who,
as pontin, would be able, through the
extremely numerous Catholic Italian
clergy, to influence an immense numbePI
of the Italian electorate.