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Seeming to stress the Roman more than the Catholic, the College of Cardinals and the Curia it operates have come in for sharp criticism from some Catholics, and suggestions for a bureaucratic reform have been sent in by non-Italian bishops for inclusion on the agenda of the Vatican Council. One of the most common requests : more freedom for diocesan bishops to adapt church practices to the needs of their people. One of the sharpest attacks in recent years came from Italian Jesuit Riccardo Lombardi (TIME, Feb. 2), who urged that Curia officials step down after reaching a mandatory retirement age, deplored the splendiferous costumes of cardinals and bishops, recommended that Curia officials be chosen from the best men available in the world, rather than in Italy. Lombardi's plea was bluntly censured by L'Osservatore Romano, in an article reportedly written by Archbishop Felici. But the winds of change have been felt in the broad, quiet Vatican halls, and reform of the cardinalate and the Curia may come from Pope John's successor.
In the church, cardinals are, as they should be, men of awe, whom Pope John last year compared to the marvelous wheels in the sky seen by the prophet Ezekiel. The Princes of the Church, he said, are men who "move around the throne of the most highest, who have no concern except for his glory, except to carry forward his fiery chariot, who when they touch the earth transform it with the ardor of their charity."
*Jose da Costa Nunes of Portugal; Efrem Forni, the apostolic nuncio to Belgium; Archbishop Juan Landazuri Ricketts of Lima; Gabriel Acacio Coussa of Syria; Archbishop Raul Silva Henriques of Santiago, Chile; Archbishop Leo Suenens of Malines-Brussels; Dominican Father Michael Browne; Vatican Librarian Anselmo Albareda. In accordance with tradition, Giovanni Panico and Ildebrando Antoniutti, the apostolic nuncios to Portugal and Spain, will receive their red hats from the heads of state in those countries. — Cardinals who belong to religious orders wear robes that are the same color as the habit of their order.