CARDINAL GODFREY, Archbishop of West
minster, will be flying to Rome on Sunday, March 27, for the historic consistories during which Pope John XXIII will name the first African Cardinal in the modern history of the Church, the first Cardinal for Japan, and the first native-born Cardinal for the Philippines.
A Cardinal will be named for Holland, one for France, and two for Italy.
Mgr. LAURIAN RUGAMBWA, Bishop of Rutabo, Tanganyika, will become the first African Cardinal of modern times. He is not the only Cardinal in Africa—the Archbishop of Lourenco Marques is Cardinal de Gouveia, a Portuguese.
MGR. PETER DOI, Archbishop of Tokyo, will be the Church's first Japanese Cardinal.
MGR. RUFINO SANTOS,
Archbishop of Manila. becomes the first native-born Cardinal of the Philippines.
The two Italians are MGR. TRAGLIA, Vice-Gerent of Rome who has ordained many priests for this country who have studied in Rome, and MGR. BACCI, Secretary of Briefs to Princes, whose Latin orations are famous.
Holland once again has a Cardinal. He is MGR. ALFRINK, Archbishop of Utrecht. The seventh to be named is MGR. LEFEBVRE, Archbishop of Bourges in France.
The Sacred College will now number 85 members, Italians: 33. Non-Italians: 52.
SAMURAI
MGR. PETER DOI, Archbishop of Tokyo and Japan's first Cardinal was born in 1892. He and his family — which traces its origins back to the samurai class, hereditary nobility under Japan's old feudal system—were received into the Church in 1894.
Peter Doi studied in Rome, took two degrees, was ordained in 1921 . and worked for 12 years as a parish priest. In 1933 he was appointed secretary to the Apostolic Delegate to Japan, Archbishop Marella, and moved to Tokyo.
Only four years later he was named Archbishop of Tokyo.
In 1940, with war imminent, all
foreign-born Ordinaries in Japan resigned their sees and the administration of the Church in Japan passed entirely into the hands of the native clergy.
When the war ended there were some 8,000 Catholics in the Archdiocese. Eleven of the 19 parish churches had been destroyed. Although in the past 15 years the number of Catholics have quadrupled, more than 10 million in his diocese alone remain strangers to the Faith.
The Cardinal-elect is chief of the board of directors of the National Catholic Committee (patterned on the lines of the U.S. NCWC organisation). His efforts in the field of education have been notable and vocations are on the increase. He is awake and to the forefront in the fight against Communism in Japan—especially as it affects the Japanese Federation of Trade Unions. The Archbishop has strongly encouraged the Y.C.W. which has cells established in most of the major industries of Japan. In recognition of his years of service to the Church in Japan, Pope Pius XII made him an Assistant at the Pontifical Throne in 1956.