THE SACRED COLLEGE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1247, 2 October 1911, Page 9

THE SACRED COLLEGE.

PIUS AND THE CREATION OP CARDINALS. The London "Tablet" of August 12 states:—Of the G2 Cardinals who took part in the conclave eight years ago only .13 are left; there were at the time (J4 Cardinals, but Cardinal Celesia, Archbishop of Palermo, was unable to come to Homo on account of his great age and poor health, aud Cardinal Moran did not arrive in time. In eight years of Pontificate Pius X has held only four creations of Cardinals: the first on November 9, 1903, when he conferred tho purple on Cardinal Callegari (who died in 190G), aud on Cardinal Merry del Yal, who, as Secretary of State., has besn his right hand during tho whole period; the second on December 11, 1905, when there were four creations: Saiiiassa, Archbishop of Agria; Arcoverdo v Alburque, Archbishop of l!iu do Janeiro, aud first Cardinal ot South America; Spinola y Maestre, Archbishop of Seville, who died a few weeks later before receiving tho "Hat," and the Majordomo, Cagi.mo de Azevedo; the third on April 15, 190T, with the. creations of Cardinals Cavallari, Pius X's successor as Patriarch of Venice, Aguirro y Garcia, Archbishop of Toledo, Rmaldini, Nuncio at Madrid, Lorenzelli, Archbishop of Lucca and last Nuncio to Paris, Maffi, Archbishop of Pisa, Lualdi, Archbishop of Palermo, .Merrier, Archbishop of i\lalines; tho fourth and lost up to date on December 16, 1907, when tho honour was conferred on Cardinals Gasparri, President of the Commission for the Codification of Canon Law, Do Lai, Secretary of tho Congregation of' tho Council, Lucon, and Anrlrkn. Thus, it will be observed, of the seventeen Cardinals created by Pius X, nine have been Italians and eight of various other nationalities, whilo twelve have been Archbishops and Bishops of residential sees, and only four have been chosen to cooperate in the work of tho Roman Curia This latter fact will servo to explain the present paucity of Cardinals in Rome. All kinds of explanations have been given for tho already unprecedently long delay between tho last, consistory and. the next, which will not take place before the early part of 1912. Tho Italian Cinquantenary celebrations account sufficiently for" tho absence of a Consistory during 1911. Prior to the present year various considerations rendered tho creation -of Cardinals unusually complicated—tho erection, as a matter of right, of the Patriarch of Lisbon, while his predecessor in the Patriarchate and in the Cardinalato was st.iii alive; raised, a delicate question as to the interpretation of the Concordat with I'orabolished by the Jacobin.'Govvornhient';" the deadlock between Mgr. Granito di Belmonte and tho Austrian Prime Minister prevented tho elevation of tho 'Nuncio at. Vienna in the usual manner; the resolution of the Pontiff to reduce gradually the Cardinals of Curia to about eighteen also contributed to the delay.