A cardinal’s hat is suspended by golden wires over the high altar in his cathedral. There it remains till it accompanies his body to the tomb.
“Accipe galerum rubrum,” said Pius Pontifex Maximus on his throne in St.
Peter’s to Cardinal Mundelein who had just kissed the cross on his slipper and the ring on his finger. Likewise, to Cardinal Hayes. It was the final act of investiture.
As they left the church, the Sistine choir sang: “Oremus Pro Pontifico Nostro Pio.”
Mrs. Theodore C. Eppig, of Rockville Center, L. I., received a cable from her brother:
“My first blessing to you and children.
“George Cardinal Mundelein.”
She replied:
“Blessing received with great joy. Loving greetings.
“Margaret and the Children.”
To a reporter, Cardinal Mundelein said:
” ‘Women and children first’, has always been our national motto. We are helping them in many quarters of the globe and have enabled the holy see to carry out its God-given mission and helped to provide the bread that the Holy Father has given to the hungry little ones of the world—this is our glory and satisfaction today.
“I have reached the topmost rung of the ladder for an ecclesiastic—the highest honor for a churchman—while still in the prime of life. I have no other ambition.”
The Pope spoke extemporaneously, in public consistory, saying:
“Truly, we have heard of the great faith of your people, of the magnificent development of their Christian life, of their flaming devotion to the holy faith and the holy see, to the Vicar of Jesus Christ and to the eucharistic Jesus Himself. . . .”