DEARTH OF CARDINALS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1192, 29 July 1911, Page 9

DEARTH OF CARDINALS.

WILL A CONSISTOKY BE HELD THIS YKAK? The "Tablet" of June 10 slates:—Thc "Osservnlove Romano" has announced (lint his Holiness had been pleased to. appoint Cardinal Cafsctla as I'rel'ect of (he Congregation of Studies in succession to tho Into Cardinal Cavicchioni. The fact calls ittfentinn (f> a report, which is being persistently circulated in Koino concerning tin , priiximale holding of a Consistory, but which your correspondent has been quite unable lo verifv. It. is. of course, well known (hat (he Holy Father was averse to holding any .solemn functions beyond tlin.-c necessary in the Vatican this year, and Consistories were certainly included in that category; bill, (he report runs, circumstances have combined, to make a CmHstor.v noeess."tr\. By the oonipnrntivi'ly recent de/itlis of Cardinals Snnminiali'lli, Segnn. and Cavicchioni. (ho number of Cardinals in Curia has been reduced lo' twenty-one. Early in his Pontificate the'lloly rather expressed his belief that eighteen Cardinals in Homo would suffice for tho work of the various

congregations, tribunals, and offices—but eighteen working Cardinals. Unfortunately, of the present twenty-one, at least hall a dozen arc confirmed invalids, and it rarely happens that.there are not two nr throe others incapacitated for work at tho same timo. The result is that the labour devolving on tho Cardinals who lire iilwiiys able, lo respond lo Iho calls made upon Iliom, has reached the point where il is beyond their strength; ami, the rumour continues to run, this fact lias been brought to the attention of his Holiness by some of the Cnrilinnls themselves; so that the Tope, in spile of his reluctance, finds it necessary lo hold a Consistory during Ihe year 3911. Such, at least, is the report—necessary to chronicle on account of the importance of tho subject, but by no means necessarily true.