Red Hats

Vatican City has always been a rookery of rumors; the highest-flying ones these days have to do with the next consistory. During recent months the Pope has been variously reported to be 1) planning to call his third consistory this winter or spring, 2) unwilling to call a consistory because of a prophecy (by Mystic Therese Neumann) that he will die after his third, 3) working on a reorganization of the Sacred College of Cardinals that would increase its membership from 70 to 90.

Well-informed Vaticaners know that it is extremely unlikely that the Pope will call a consistory in the near future. Reason No. 1: the disturbed state of the world. This is a time for cardinals to stay in their sees; Poland's Cardinal Wyszynski has not yet been able to get to Rome to receive the red hat awarded him in 1953.

Reason No. 2 : there are only ten vacancies in the College. Since three red hats are virtual musts at the next consistory--to Archbishops Griffin of Westminster, Koenig of Vienna and Montini of Milan--there would be only seven vacancies to fill many demands for new cardinals. Thus it would be wiser to wait till more openings occur. "There are several cardinals of advanced age," as one prelate put it delicately, "and despite the most charitable hopes, they cannot last much longer."

Another though less important reason for delay is the almost poetic complexity of Vatican policies as exemplified in the Montini-Tardini situation. Monsignors Giovanni Montini and Domenico Tardini labored long in the Vatican as equal advisers to the Pope until Pius XII appointed Montini Archbishop of Milan two years ago. At the next consistory, Montini will surely be made a cardinal, and that should normally mean a red hat also for Tardini, now pro-Secretary of State. But Tardini refuses to be a cardinal; he has all the power and honor he wants, feels that the ceremonies attendant upon the rank of a prince of the church would interfere with his work. A red hat for Montini, without one for Tardini, might be misinterpreted as papal favoritism. Result: a minor deadlock.

Meanwhile, from all over the world, pressures for new red hats are building up. When a consistory is called, some major changes will almost certainly result:

P: There will be fewer Italians. The present proportion of 21 Italian cardinals to 39 from other nationalities will be trimmed by not replacing cardinals in several Italian cities after their incumbents die.

P: Japan will almost certainly get its first cardinal in Tokyo's Archbishop Peter Tatsuo Doi. Though his archdiocese is not large (26,586 Catholics in a population of 10 million), Archbishop Tatsuo Doi has a strong claim in the fact that Peking has a cardinal, Thomas Tien, now in exile at Techny, Ill. (Cardinal Tien came to the U.S. in 1951 for treatment of a heart ailment, and this was felt by some Vatican critics to have broken the tradition that a prince of the church must remain at his post in time of danger).

P: Manila will get a red hat as the largest diocese in the Far East (1,967,791 Catholics). The only reason Archbishop Rufino Santos was not made cardinal in 1953 was his youth (he is now 48).

P: Africa will probably be represented in the college for the first time, with Joseph Kiwanuka, Negro Bishop of Masaka in the Uganda, as the leading candidate.

P: Mexico is likely to become a red-hat country for the first time. Certain choice would be Mexico City's Archbishop Miguel Dario Miranda.

P: Likeliest U.S. appointments: Boston's Archbishop Richard Cushing, Manhattan's (and TV's) Auxiliary Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, National Director of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

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