Religion: Merry del Val Jubilee

For a day last week Rafael Merry del Val stepped reluctantly out of the shadow of the retirement in which he has lived since the death of Pope Pius X, his beloved friend. He celebrated the silver jubilee of his elevation, at the hands of Pius X, to the cardinalate. He celebrated a high mass. He attended a banquet in his honor. Then once again he withdrew into the cloister of his memories.

It was a political tangle which precipitated Merry del Val on his so-glittering early career. Cardinal Rampolla was expected to succeed to the papacy when Leo XIII died in...