Of the hundreds of beatification and canonization processes pending in the tribunals of the Roman Catholic Church, five made U. S. news last week:
Black Barber. Last week brought the feast day of a humble Peruvian who was beatified and declared Blessed in 1837. He was Martin de Porres (1579-1639). a mulatto barber whose father was a Spanish nobleman and whose mother was a Negro. A Dominican lay brother, Blessed Martin was a "Father of the Poor." The movement to elevate Blessed Martin to sainthood is being fostered not only by priests who give Porres leaflets to Pullman porters but also by 50,000 members of the Blessed Martin Guild, founded by The Torch, Dominican monthly whose editor is Rev. Edward Hughes 0. P. In the Dominicans' swank Manhattan Church of St. Vincent Ferrer last month was unveiled a statue of Blessed Martin (see cut, p. 46), first of a Negro in any U. S. Catholic church. "Non Sum Papabilis." When the College of Cardinals gathered in 1903 to elect a Pope,the following conversation took place between a Frenchman and an Italian:* "Votre Eminence est sans doute archevêque en Italic. Dans quel diocèse?" "Non parlo francese." "In quanam diocesi es archiepiscopus?" "Sum patriarca Venetiae." "Non liqueris gallice? Ergo non es papabilis, siquidem papa debet gallice liqui." "Verum est, Eminentissime Domine. Non sum papabilis. Deo Gratias." The Patriarch of Venice, who spoke no French but in Latin thanked his God that on that account he was not eligible to become Pope (papabile), was Giuseppe Sarto. Few days later he was chosen Pope, taking the name Pius X. Theologically Pius X's greatest work was his encyclical Pascendi which demolished the then dangerous Catholic movement toward Modernism. Vainly attempting to stave off the War, he died soon after its beginning, has been called its first victim. Last June brought the centenary of the birth of Giuseppe Sarto. Last week many a Catholic was praying that Pope Pius X be made a saint, the Boston Pilot recalling that since his death people have been gathering by his tomb in St. Peter's, that the first process on his holy virtues has now been completed. Fairest Flower, At a priests' meeting during the Seventh National Eucharistic Congress in Cleveland last September (TIME, Sept. 30), it was voted to petition the Holy See to expedite the beatification of an Indian girl named Catherine Tekakwitha. Last week Cleveland's Bishop Joseph Schrembs in a formal letter apprised Pope Pius XI of this fact.