Religion: Five Red Hats

By tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, the Sacred College of Cardinals may number 70 prelates. But until two years ago it was always short of this plenum by at least three or four members. Reason was that, should a Pope die suddenly, his successor might wish immediately tomake cardinals of his best friends and working associates. Impatient of tradition, Pope Pius XI brought the Sacred College up to 69 two years ago. Continuing a policy of creating cardinals as deaths occurred in the College, the Holy Father last week let it be announced that he would award five new red hats at two consistories in mid-December. The five cardinals-to-be:

Most Rev. Arthur Hinsley, 72, Archbishop of Westminster. Primate of 2,300,000 British Catholics. Since Pope Pius IX, in 1850, re-established the often suppressed British hierarchy, under Nicholas Patrick Stephen Cardinal Wiseman, the see of Westminster has traditionally been entitled to a cardinal. But Archbishop Hinsley, soon after his appointment to succeed the late Francis Cardinal Bourne in 1935, embarrassed the Church by his statements during the Italo-Ethiopian war. Replying energetically to the anti-Italian attacks of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of Westminster announced that the Pope was powerless to intervene in the war because he was “a helpless old man.” For this, Archbishop Hinsley, long-jawed Yorkshireman, was passed over when on two occasions the Pope raised other prelates to the purple.

Most Rev. Ermenegildo Pellegrinetti, Apostolic Nuncio to Yugoslavia who earned his red hat by a pyrrhic victory. He negotiated a concordat with Yugoslavia so favorable to his Church that it led to religious rioting and the Yugoslavian Parliament dared not ratify it (TIME, Aug. 2).

Most Rev. Pierre Gerlier, well-loved and smooth-spoken bishop of the French diocese which includes the famed shrine of Lourdes, who was raised last summer to be Archbishop of Lyons. This post carries with it the ancient, honorable but now empty designation, Primate of Gaul.

Most Rev. Adeodato Giovanni Piazza, a militant churchman who is considered one of many candidates to be the next Pope. He is Patriarch of Venice, in effect an archbishop but holding an ancient title (like the Patriarchs of Lisbon, the East and West Indies) which stands because no one ever bothered to abolish it.

Most Rev. Giuseppe Pizzardo, 61, scholar and diplomat, who is secretary of the Sacred Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, head of the Church’s bureau of Catholic Action. Once detested by Italy’s Fascists because he fought the Pope’s battle with them over the matter of educating Italian youth, Monsignor Piz-zardo, like the Pope, is today disposed to collaborate with Fascism. As much as any prelate in the Vatican, he has the Holy Father’s ear in business and financial affairs. Last May he was the Pope’s legate to the coronation of King George VI, but was permitted only to sit outside Westminster Abbey in a special tribune.