Conclave reform rumours revived

Vatican "experts" both clerical inside the walls of the Apostolic Palace, and lay outside are hard at work today attempting to assess the motives behind Pope Paul's choices of bishops for elevation to cardinalate rank.
The Pope's selections ranged across the globe, embraced the white, black and yellow races, spanned ages from 45 to 76 and boosted into the College of Cur dinals four Congregation secretaries due for resignation and reassignment on March 1.
Coming as it did, four years after the last Consistory, the announcement of this March 5 Consistory has also sparked waves of guesswork on whether the Pope intends to reform the Conclave, which will elect his successor, or has shelved the project. A more serious thought: This may be his last Consistory.
For the past two years Pope Paul is known to have been working on this Conclave reform project and to have encountered much opposition from his College or Cardinals.
This opposition centred chiefly on purported papal plans to make the election of a Pope more tin iversal by broadening the Conclave to include some key bishops as well as cardinals. By' last week's nominations Paul instead has broadened the College.
While the list names eight Italians for elevation to replace the eight Italian cardinals who have died in the past four years, it lowers the Italian predominance to a total of 41 in the overall College all-time-high strength of 145.
But the Italians will still muster 31 of the 116 cardinals under 80 entitled to vote in Conclave formidable votiag bloc which should enable them to elect an Italian Pope if they so desire.
In fact, last week's nominations have sparked anew die perennial Roman game of guessing who is the roost papabile or "likely to become Pope."
In_ this connection Archbishop Sergio Pignedoli, who is only 62, has often been mentioned in past years as being "groomed" for the papacy. His situation is sometimes compared with that of the present Pope who, when Pius XII died in 1958, was mentioned frequently but was only an archbishop at the time.
The 30 cardinals nominated to become cardinals on March 5 come from all areas of the world.
Archbishop Boleslaw Kominek, named as Poland's first-ever third cardinal, is considered here to have been given his red hat as a reward for having defended the Church so courageously in that border Oder-Neisse area of Wroclaw for almost the entire post-war period against both regime ecclesiastical encroachment and international political machinations.
Oceania's first cardinal, Archbishop Pio Taofinu'u, was Bishop, of Apia when he welcomed Pope Paul to Samoa during the Pontiffs flying visit in November 1970.
The new Japanese cardinal is Archbishop Paul Yoshigoro Taguchi of Osaka, the industrial Birmingham of Japan. He is considered an able administrator who is especially concerned with the formation of new priests in his country, which is the Pope's aim.
Pakistan also gets a first cardinal with the appointment of Archbishop Joseph Cordeiro of Karachi. India for many years has had a cardinal, Valerian Gracias of Bombay, and so has Ceylon (Sri Lanka) with Cardinal Thomas B. Cooray.
Now all three major nations of the sub-continent are equally represented and the Vatican, too, has formally named an envoy to Bangladesh.
Two African cardinals have been named. Both are important and influential personages even outside ecclesiastical circles.
Archbishop Maurice Otunga of Nairobi, is the son of the late Chief Sudi, head oldie Babusuku tribe. This places him in a position of tribal equality with President Kenyatta.
Archbishop Emile Biayenda of Brazzaville is the "spiritual son" of his predecessor, Archbishop Mbembe who was a tribal chief in his own right and has in herited the tribal respect due the former archbishop.
Archbishop Biayenda studied in Rome and is capable of open and hard dialogue with priests and laity. He is a moderate conservative but not afraid of progressive initiatives, and is considered by the Vatican Secretariat or State as the ideal man to represent the Church in this Socialist country.
The nomination to cardinalate rank of the four secretaries of Congregadons was a surprise except in the elevation of Archbishop Pigncdoli, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples (Propaganda Fide).
All four secretaries will have held their positions for five years on March 1 and, under Pope Paul's main proprio, were due to resign.
At Pope Paul's descretion he could have retained them in their positions. transferred them to others or simply moved them into retirement. The fact that he chose to elevate all four has caused Vatican prelates to query: "Does the Pope intend to elevate all secretaries he wants to move?"
Archbishop Paul Philippe, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (former Holy Office), the key Congregation in the Curia, is known to be in the Pope's confidence.
There has been speculation that American Cardinal John J. Wright, now Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, might take over the Faith Congregation when its Yugoslav Prefect Cardinal, Franjo Seper, known to be in poor health, steps aside. But instead Archbishop Philippe could get the job.
The elevation 01 the two diPlomats, the Nuncio to Brazil and the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, are considered routine appointments.
But the naming of three Spanish cardinals "Foledo, Barcelona and Cordoba is interpreted as a determination to strenghen the Church's position in Spain in view of present negotiations on a new Concordat with the Franco Government.
Michael Wilson