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>CHURCH ORGANIZATION. When Montini worked in the Vatican for Pius XII, reports one of his old associates, he wanted "to break up that closed club called the Curia." Although potentially a strong, even authoritarian Pope, Paul VI will unquestionably move to internationalize the central administration of the church, probably will give the bishops at the second session of the Vatican Council the same free hand that John allowed. Paul VI is known to favor the extension of episcopal authority and to promote such internal church reforms as more vernacular in the Mass.
>CHURCH UNITY. In his first speech, Paul VI seemed to speak of Christian unity in terms that non-Catholics quite understandably deplore—as a return by them to the "paternal house" in Rome. Nonetheless, Paul may not have meant it to have an imperious tone. He is known to favor serious discussions of Christian union by Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox theologians, has made a favorable impression on the Protestant churchmen who have met him. One of his first acts as Pope was to discuss with Cardinal Bea, chief of the Vatican's Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, the state of Catholic-Jewish relations.
>"OPENING TO THE EAST." Most Students of Paul VI's past record expect that he will be more cautious than John in promoting concord with Communism. "No cardinal is as open in this way as John was," says one intimate. Montini clearly intends to gather as much advice from his prelate friends as possible. He spent the afternoon of his election conferring with Vienna's Cardinal Konig, Pope John's principal go-between in the negotiations to bring Cardinal Mindszenty to Rome. Twice so far the new Pope has conferred with Ukrainian Archbishop Slipyi, whose expert knowledge of Communism comes from 18 years of Soviet confinement. Rome does not expect a quick decision on whether Paul will follow this most controversial path charted by John. "When Montini starts speaking," says one of Rome's leading clerical editors, "it is first a laborious thing. Then he begins to warm up, and then all of a sudden he breaks into brilliant discourse."
If a man with some of Pius' capacity for discourse and some of John's openness is what the Catholic Church needs, then the cardinals last week could hardly have chosen better. According to U.S. Jesuit Theologian John Courtney Murray, the symbol of Pope John's brief reign might well be the question mark —a token of the new problems he uncovered and the puzzles he knew the church would have to learn how to solve. Paul VI, if all goes well, might end with a period as the sign of his reign: the symbol of answers found and given.
-*Missing were Quito's ailing Carlos Maria de la Torre, 89, and Hungary's Josef Mindszenty, 71, whose safe-conduct from the U.S. legation in Budapest is still pending. * The conclave that elected John XXIII in 1958 took three days; Pius XII was chosen in less than 24 hours.