Religion: 24 Hats

For a year, U.S. Roman Catholics have eagerly awaited the announcement of a Papal Consistory and its list of new cardinals. At the last one, in February 1946, four red hats went to U.S. churchmen.* This time, in view of their increasing importance in church affairs, e.g., U.S. contributions account for one-third of the Vatican’s foreign revenues, the U.S. clergy hoped to get three or four more. The most talked-about candidates: Archbishops Richard J. Gushing of Boston, John Francis O’Hara of Philadelphia, Joseph E. Ritter of St. Louis.

Last week the long-expected news came —and it was a disappointment. The Vatican announced the appointment of 24 new members to the Sacred College of Cardinals, to be installed at a four-day Papal Consistory starting Jan. 12. There was only one American on the list: Los Angeles’ Archbishop J. Francis A. Mclntyre.

Behind the Curtain. Of the 24 new cardinals, whose appointments bring the college to its authorized strength of 70, eleven are Italians. This raises the number of Italian cardinals to 27 (v. an Italian membership of 35 when Eugenic Pacelli became Pius XII in 1939). Three of the new cardinals are from Latin America (Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil), one from Canada. Other non-Italians: two Spaniards, one German, one Irishman (Archbishop D’Alton of Armagh in Northern Ireland) and two Frenchmen, giving France the highest number of cardinals (six) after Italy.

The Pope gave no reasons for his appointments (which also disappointed Catholics in India and the Philippines), but there was mathematical logic to them. Spain, with a Catholic population of 28 million—slightly less than the U.S.—had only two cardinals before this year, as compared with four in the U.S. Brazil, which now has three cardinals (Rio, São Paulo and Bahia), claims a Catholic population of 53 million.

Two of the new cardinals are from Communist countries—Poland’s Archbishop Stefan Wyszynski (pronounced Vishinsky) and Yugoslavia’s Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac. Archbishop Wyszynski, Primate of Poland, has avoided an open break with the Communists, has kept some freedom in ministering to Poland’s 20 million Catholics. Stepinac. an uncompromising enemy of the Tito government, was released in 1951 after five years in jail (TIME, Dec. 17, 1951). He is now confined to his native village of Krasic. Tito has refused to let him return to his archbishopric of Zagreb, and he has refused to leave Yugoslavia. He will probably be invested in absentia.

West of the Rockies. Archbishop Mclntyre, the first U.S. cardinal whose see is west of the Rockies, was an unheralded candidate. He seemed greatly surprised at the news of his appointment, which he learned when reporters called his residence before dawn. A ruddy-faced, cheerful man of 66, he got his start in life at 13 as a Wall Street runner; after 16 hard-working years in the financial district, he was offered a partnership in his brokerage firm, but turned it down to study for the priesthood (at 29). His business talents got him the job of assistant chancellor of the New York archdiocese; in 1941, he became auxiliary bishop and then coadjutor archbishop to his good friend Cardinal Spellman. In Los Angeles (with a Catholic population of 835,000), he has shown himself an excellent administrator and tireless builder of schools (82 new ones since his arrival in 1948).

Among the other new cardinals:

Paul-Emile Léger, 48, Archbishop of Montreal and a member of the Sulpician order. Archbishop Leger spent six years teaching in Japan, was later appointed rector of the Canadian College in Rome (1947-50). An outspoken, rigidly pious man, he has campaigned for strict enforcement of Canada’s liquor laws, against bingo, lotteries, stag parties.

Giuseppe Siri, 46, Archbishop of Genoa. A hero of the Resistance movement in Italy, he is a vigorous go-getter, a leader in Church welfare projects and in Italy’s Catholic Action movement.

Giacomo Lercaro, 61, Archbishop of Bologna, one of the church’s most successful campaigners against the Italian Communists. As Bishop of Ravenna, he was credited with defeating the Communists there in the 1951 municipal elections. He is sometimes mentioned as “Papabile,” i.e., a good prospect to be Pope.

*Elevated in 1946: Glennon of St. Louis (who died the next month), Mooney of Detroit, Stritch of Chicago, Spellman of New York.