AN AMERICAN POPE?
There have been rumours in Rome that the Pope is con- sidering the possibility of breaking the 400-year Italian monopoly of the Papacy and being succeeded by an American. He cannot, of course, appoint his successor, who is elected by the College of Cardinals, but by his appointments to that body and by other means he can do much to influence its choice, and it is said that his next allocation of Red Hats will reduce still further the proportion of Italians in the Sacred College. The election of an American Pope might bring some advantage to Roman Catholicism and to the West, but it is unlikely to happen. It is doubtful if the obvious American candidate, Cardinal Spellman, is made of proper Papal timber, and his election might increase rather than lessen American Protestant distrust of the Holy See. The influence of the Vatican on Italian politics would be seriously diminished. Italians would almost inevitably confuse the efforts of an American Pope to ensure the success of the Christian Demo- crats and the cause of the West with those of Mrs. Luce, and the result might be the loss of Italy to the Communists. In other countries, too, the task of red propagandists would be made much easier. The last non-Italian Pope, Adrian VI (1522-1523), taught before he succeeded to the tiara—and his teaching was published in the book Queestiones de Sacramentis after he had succeeded—that Popes are not infallible. This might be considered a discouraging precedent.
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