New Hats

Rome buzzed last week with rumors of red hats. Since the last cardinals were created in 1946, death has reduced the roster of the College of Cardinals from its full 70 to only 52. Pope Pius XII, it was said, would soon call a consistory to restore the depleted ranks. Though the Pope would not necessarily create 18 new princes of the church, Vatican insiders rated a few outstanding Roman Catholic prelates as sure bets. Among them:

P: Boston's strapping, prow-jawed Archbishop Richard J. Gushing, 55, Bostonborn blacksmith's son, whose able leadership of his 1,300,000-member flock has made him one of the best known members of the U.S. hierarchy.

P: Montreal's tactful, liberal-minded Archbishop Paul-Emile Leger, 46, onetime head of the Canadian Pontifical College in Rome, who was raised to the archbishopric only last year.

P: Ireland's Primate, John D'Alton, 68, Archbishop of Armagh.

P: Vatican Prelates Celso Costantini of Propaganda Fide, Alfredo Ottaviani of the Holy Office, and Valerio Valeri of the State Secretariat.

More speculative was the question of what the Pope would do about the lands behind the Iron Curtain, where two cardinals have died (Poland's Hlond in 1948 and Berlin's von Preysing last month), and many a prominent priest and prelate has been imprisoned (e.g., Hungary's Cardinal Mindszenty, Yugoslavia's Archbishop Stepinac).

There were also rumors of the creation of the first Negro cardinal in modern church history. Roman Catholics in Africa, according to Vatican records, have increased 400% during the past 30 years to a present total of more than 10 million, are served by three archbishops, 13 bishops and 117 vicars apostolic (including two Negroes).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.