Media Watch

Roman Tailors' Busy February

LOS ANGELES TIMES, Feb. 27 — Rome's handful of clergy tailors had a month before the installation of 44 new cardinals Feb. 21 to sew by hand the distinctive attire the cardinals now wear, the daily reported.

The January appointment, the most ever in one batch, sent careful craftsmen such as Michele Ombroso at the Euroclero shop into a frenzy. The outfit, which costs about $1,500, consists of a crimson wool cassock lined in crimson silk, a white apron-like tunic called a rochet topped by a short crimson cape known as a mozzetta, a crimson and gold tasseled cord, a crimson mohair sash and a pair of crimson socks. Atop it all sits the best known accessories, the only ones a cardinal receives from the Pope — a crimson skullcap called a zucchetto and the crown-like biretta, a four-cornered hat with three ridges.

The job wasn't as daunting as it might have been in centuries past, the Times said. The 100-foot trailing cape and the ermine cap were abolished from the cardinal's wardrobe shortly after World War II. Gone too are the silver buckled shoes. The fasteners to hold together the sash that girds the waist have been replaced by Velcro.

Hoosier Shoots for Vatican Post

INDIANAPOLIS STAR, Feb. 28 — Indiana lobbyist Jeffery Drozda is lobbying the Bush administration for the ambassadorship of the Vatican, the daily reported.

A onetime seminarian and Notre Dame graduate, Drozda works as a lobbyist for American Electric Power Co. in Carmel, Indiana.

By ambassador standards, Drozda is a political novice, the Star said, noting that he has no diplomatic experience and has never held elected office. In contrast, the last two U.S. ambassadors to the Vatican were former U.S. Rep. Lindy Boggs and Raymond Flynn, former mayor of Boston.