Word: pius
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Congratulations for your fine reporting on Pope Pius XII's death and Pope John XXII's election. To pass over in silence-as some of your readers would have had you do-events of such importance, would have been a clear manifestation both of lack of culture and of lack of realism...
...cardinals, expanding the college from its 372-year-old limit of 70 to a new strength of 75-with the prospect of still further expansion to come. Most significant result of the new appointments will be to strengthen the administrative machinery of the church-the Curia-which Pius XII, no man to delegate wide authority, had neglected during the last few years. The Curia now has 24 instead of 13 cardinals, and the overall Italian representation in the College of Cardinals is now up from 17 to 29-not, Vaticaners feel, with a view to restoring the traditional Italian majority...
Your excellent series on the death of Pius XII and the election of John XXIII were well done and handled in a proper and diplomatic manner...
Carried by Your Father. On the human day-to-day level John XXIII also found plenty of opportunity to make his presence known. Vatican employees, including elevator men and gardeners, were getting over their initial shock at being greeted informally by the Holy Father (Pope Pius XII had the gardens cleared before he entered them). Everyone was growing accustomed to the surprising sound of papal laughter ("Pius XII had a very gentle sense of humor," said one of the late Pope's closest advisers. "For 20 years I never saw him laugh"). John XXIII is not averse to starting...
Accustomed to receiving full and formal texts of papal statements (which Pius XII painstakingly composed in advance), journalists had a hard time keeping up with John as he rattled on without notes, clapping his hands ebulliently to emphasize his points, almost bouncing in the commodious papal throne and glancing at the richly robed attendants of the papal antechamber to see if they laughed at his sallies. At the end of the conference, the Pope said cheerfully: "Now I'll give you a little blessing, if you want it-you may extend it to all those whom you keep...