Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Religion: 80th Birthday
The audience that assembled in the Vatican's gold-ceilinged Consistory Hall one morning last week included no cardinals, bishops or diplomats. When Pius XII entered, 203 children from 17 nations gaily waved wands of lilies.
The Pope, declining his throne, motioned to his personal servant to place a chair for him on the floor "so that I won't look too big." Behind him, a blue-smocked boy and a white-smocked girl laboriously lit the 80 candles on a dove-dotted birth day cake bought by the children themselves. Then, with the blazing cake before him, the Pope found himself the center of a dancing ring-around-a-rosy....
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