Four New Hats

Pope John XXIII appointed four new cardinals last week, thereby raising the membership of the Sacred College of Cardinals to 86. Two of the new red hats go to South Americans, one to an Italian and one to an American,* Archbishop Joseph Elmer Ritter, 68, of St. Louis, Mo., one of America's most vigorous Roman Catholic orelates.

When he was appointed Archbishop of St. Louis in 1946, to succeed John Cardinal Glennon (who died on his way back to the U.S. after being made a cardinal by Pope Pius XII), St. Louisans found Indiana-born Archbishop Ritter a far different kind of man from the warm and outgoing Archbishop Glennon. Slender almost to frailty, with rimless glasses and a gentle voice. Ritter seemed unapproachable and colorless at first, but it was not long before St. Louis' 450,000 Roman Catholics knew how much more he was than an office manager.

Some of the city's parochial schools were segregated and some were not; Archbishop Ritter ordered in 1947 that all be integrated at once. "The cross on top of our schools must mean something," he said. When a group of diehard segregationists threatened to take legal action, Archbishop Ritter squelched them fast with the announcement that anyone involved in such a movement would be excommunicated.

Under Archbishop Ritter. St. Louis has gained 41 new churches and 16 new hospitals. St. Louis has also acquired a warm feeling for the quiet archbishop, who is notoriously inaccessible to newsmen. Asked by one of them--tongue in cheek --whether as cardinal he planned to hold regular press conferences. Archbishop Ritter smiled broadly. "I think I'll wait to see what Senator Kennedy's going to do," he replied. "He may give you more press conferences than you'll know what to do with."

The other new cardinals:

P:Archbishop Jose Humberto Quintero, 58, of Caracas, Venezuela, was born of humble parents in the Andean village of Mucuchies, near Merida, won scholarships to continue his education in Rome and eventually became dean of Merida University's law school. A genial, round-faced scholar and amateur portrait painter. Quintero will be the first cardinal in Venezuela's history.

P: Archbishop Luis Concha Cordoba, 69, of Bogota, Colombia, was born to a powerful and cultured family (his father was President of Colombia from 1914 to 1918). A shy, modest man, Archbishop Concha Cordoba is recognized to be an able administrator with a forward-looking viewpoint that makes him trusted by the Liberals--Colombia's majority political party, which favors separation of church and state.

P: The most Rev. Giuseppe Ferretto. 61, a noted archaeologist and Secretary of the Sacred College of Cardinals, has held an impressive number of Vatican administrative posts, dealing with law, education, emigration, communications, and the church's overseas affairs.

* Giving the U.S. six cardinals. The others: Spellman of New York, Meyer of Chicago, McIntyre of Los Angeles, Cushing of Boston, and Muench, former bishop of Fargo, N.Dak., now serving at the Vatican Curia.

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