Pope to the Hills

When His Holiness Pope Pius XI observed last Easter much more quietly than heretofore (TIME, April 13), the U. S. Catholic press was at pains to soft-pedal the fact that the Holy Father's health had anything to do with it. Last week, however, the Vatican household felt vastly relieved when at 6:30 o'clock one evening three automobiles rolled away bearing the 79-year-old Pontiff and a small retinue to Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer snuggery in the cool Alban Hills. Leaving the muggy Vatican a month earlier than usual, Pius XI planned to remain away three months, longest vacation yet scheduled.

With the Pope went his chief physician, Professor Aminta Milani, head of the Vatican sanitation department. Dr. Milani, with eight colleagues of the Vatican staff and eight consultants, gave the Holy Father a thoroughgoing examination last month, found his condition ''satisfactory for his age." Chief trouble, Vatican attendants admitted, is that the Pope, once a sturdy mountain climber, finds it difficult not only to walk but to breathe easily. In all his daily activities he now is borne about in a sedan chair, or in his ceremonial sedia gestatoria (portable throne). Near the Benediction Hall, where Pius XI holds audiences, there has been set up behind a red curtain a portable washstand and toilet, with a cabinet containing first-aid medicaments. To this, and presumably to one like it at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope could, in case of an emergency, be rushed by doctors who are always close by him.

Twice during the past three weeks, newshawks thought there was personal significance in papal remarks. When he elevated Librarians Giovanni Mercati and Eugene Tisserant to the cardinalate (TIME, June 22), the Pope said: "We invite the Catholic faithful to pray that the Lord permit us, so long as life lasts, to pass it in unceasing, fruitful work. . . ." Scanning plans for improvements to St. Peter's Square, he remarked: "When a man is 80 years old, he cannot make too far-distant dates." Last fortnight, on the eve of the feast of St. Peter, Pius XI, in accordance with papal custom, descended to the cool tomb of his predecessor, in a grotto beneath St. Peter's. There he prayed, stood silent where five years ago he said: "Some day I, too, shall find sweet repose in this place."

The Supreme Pontiff's intimates lately told newshawks that despite their advice Pius XI tires himself by talking at length with pilgrims, sometimes repeating the same idea over & over in different words. On his birthday, instead of speaking in French or Italian as he usually does, he addressed visitors in Latin, making mistakes which could be attributed only to fatigue. According to Rome Correspondent Sonia Tomara of the New York Herald Tribune, release of the papal encyclical on the cinema, longest ever issued to the U. S. hierarchy, was hastened last week before a breakdown of the Pope's health could forestall it.

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