Word: hinsley
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Hinsley was England's only Cardinal. There are two others in the British Empire: MacRory of Ireland; Villeneuve of Quebec. Hinsley's death reduced the College of Cardinals (maximum 70) to an almost unprecedented low (49). Reason: the war has prevented many possible recipients of the red hat from traveling to the Vatican. Sometimes the Pope creates a Cardinal in petto (in the breast, i.e., he keeps it a secret until he wishes to announce it). Many American Catholics hope that Pius XII may have created New York's Archbishop Francis J. Spellman a Cardinal in petto...
Jubilee Coming. Almost blind, rather deaf, lanky, square-jawed Cardinal Hinsley was never well since he had a bout with paratyphoid in Africa a decade ago. Yet, despite recurring heart attacks, the prelate's seven years at Westminster were enormously active. When the late Pope Pius XI appointed Hinsley Archbishop in 1935 he was practically unknown in England. Son of a Yorkshire carpenter and an Irish mother, he had spent several quiet decades as a schoolmaster and rector of a London parish and Rome's English College. In 1926 he was consecrated a Bishop and sent to Africa...
...Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, died. Because the late King George V's jubilee was scheduled to take place shortly, Bourne's successor as Archbishop had to be selected quickly. When the choice fell on Hinsley he not only came out of retirement but also became a potent voice in the nation...
...with his high-pitched Yorkshire-Irish brogue expressed his "unbounded indignation" at the Italian attack on Ethiopia (and defended the silent Pope as "a helpless old man"). What Pius thought of this remark is not on record, but twice afterwards when His Holiness created new Cardinals, he passed over Hinsley...
...however, Hinsley got the red hat. "I have been called a clothes peg," he said, "but I have had to submit to it because this is settled by authority, and not by my choice or liking." When he returned from the Vatican in his red Cardinal's robes, Londoners gave him an ovation, strewed flowers in his path...