On the Roads to Rome

Vatican workmen readied the ancient stage for the largest consistory in all the long centuries of the Church. Along the giant cornice high in St. Peter's nave, 100 of them walked surefooted, hanging draperies that would backdrop the venerable rites. Below them wooden stands, red-cloth covered, were going up so that the privileged public might witness the ceremonial high point. Carpet-layers were at work. The Pope's throne and the cardinals' chairs were put in place.

In the Hall of Benedictions, a long, corridor-like room with gold-ornamented walls and ceiling, the "imposition of the biretta" would mark a step in the elevation of some 30 prelates as princes of the Church. A throne would be set up for Pius XII and drapery-covered benches for the cardinals. Other Vatican rooms needed no attention: 1) Consistory Hall, where the secret consistories preceding the public ceremonies would be held; 2) the Sala del Paramenti with its splendid Gobelin tapestries, where the Pope would receive the cardinals in a private audience; 3) the huge, frescoed Sala Regia and 4) the Sala Ducale, with the Bernini marbles, through which the procession would pass.

Brothers to Christ's Vicar. This week the cardinals-designate, who in their persons bear witness to the imperial sweep of the Church of Rome, reached the Holy City for the ceremonies that would make them not only princes of the Church, but brothers and counsellors to the man they look upon as Christ's Vicar on Earth. They came as pilgrims, but for some the pilgrimage was at 20th-century speed.

For the first time in history prelates flew to Rome to receive the red hat. The air travelers from the U.S.: New York's Francis J. Spellman, Detroit's Edward Mooney, Chicago's Samuel Stritch, 83-year-old John J. Glennon of St. Louis, Bishop Thomas Tien of Tsingtao, China. In a dither of pride, TWA officials billed the flight--three gleaming, four-motored planes, "the most distinguished mass-flight of passengers across the North Atlantic in aviation history."

The flight arrangements were made by Archbishops Spellman and Stritch. They insisted on full fares and routine treatment. But the aerial pilgrimage had its humble touch: the prelates' baggage.

All five cardinals-designate had been outfitted in hand-me-downs. Because Vatican tailors, faced with Italy's shortage of silks and gold braid, could outfit only twelve of the 32 new cardinals completely the American archbishops and Bishop Tien drew on the wardrobes of the late Cardinals Mundelein, O'Connell anc Hayes. But the Pope would provide the red hats--a personal gift--as well as the topaz rings that are the badge of office.

In Ceteris Partibus. In London Archbishop Bernard Griffin, youngest cardinal designate (46), retrieved the flowing cappa magna of the late Cardinal Kinsley from the Gainsborough Film Studios (to whom they had been lent for a Paganini movie), had it altered to fit, set out for Rome.

Archbishop Joseph Mindszenthy left behind him in Budapest mobs (probably Communist-led) which had demonstrated against him with placards reading: "Mindszenthy wants a kingdom. Hang him on a tree." The Archbishop, said Hungarian Minister of Justice Stefen Riesz, "will not be arrested, as the government refuses to make a martyr of him, as he strongly desires."

One cardinal-elect might not travel to Rome: Johannes de Jong of Utrecht, Holland's first cardinal since the Reformation, whose physician decided he had not yet recovered from a recent motor accident. His red hat would be brought to him by a papal legate.

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