A Vatican Problem

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 17, 1912

A Vatican Problem

A QUESTION is again on the tapis at the Vatican that has caused animated and learned discussion during the last thirty years, namely, that of giving to the different Catholic sections of the world better representation in the sacred college, which, as is known, is a kind of senate of the church. If the Pope were to be compared to a temporal ruler, each cardinal would represent a viceroy. . . .

For the working of the vast and complicated machinery of the church in Rome, it is necessary to have about as to twenty-five cardinals living there. These, called cardinals of the curia, are now Italians, with the exception of four — Merry del Val and Vives Y. Tuto, who are Spanish; Van Rossum, who is Dutch; and Billot, who is French. Even these cardinals of the curia, it is remarked, might do more profitable work for the church if a larger proportion were foreign.

American interests, for instance, have been represented first by the late Cardinal Satolli, who was the original apostolic legate at Washington, and now by his two successors, Cardinals Martinelli and Falconio; but the need is felt of a born American. A prominent ecclesiastic, very dear to the present Pope, who is already occupying an important position in Rome, and whose name is mentioned for archbishop of one of the most important sees in the United States, is regarded as the most likely American cardinal of the curia.

With regard to Canada, there might be a repetition of what occurred for the United States at the last consistory. When it was wished to raise to the purple the head of the archdiocese of Boston, that of New York, who had such great merits, could not be overlooked. In Canada Monsignor Bruchesi, archbishop of Montreal, is practically in the same position as was Archbishop O’Connell, but his appointment to the high dignity can not be made without overlooking Monsignor Begin, archbishop of Quebec. — Special cable from Rome to the New York Times, Oct. 6, 1912.