By Maria Karagianis, Globe Staff, and Sari Gilbert, Special to The Globe, 5/27/1985

aughter, song and the sounds of animated conversation rang through the air last evening as close to 1000 happy people, for the most part Bostonians, jammed into the spacious courtyard of North American College here to celebrate with newly elevated Cardinal Bernard F. Law.

Strains of chamber music wafted on the summer evening breeze at the American seminary in Rome, and white-jacketed waiters served drinks, sandwiches and hot and cold hors d'oeuvres at tables covered with pink cloths and topped with white canvas umbrellas.

Hundreds of people waited patiently for as long as two hours in a four- abreast reception line to greet the guest of honor. Those who had already shaken the cardinal's hand sat on wooden bridge chairs that had been set up in the garden or stood chatting in small groups. Many wore white buttons saying, "Cardinal Law, May 25, 1985."

The cardinal, wearing his new red-trimmed black cassock with the cardinal's red sash and small red skullcap, or zucchetto, stood on an Oriental carpet placed near the courtyard's reflecting pool to welcome his guests. He shook hands with all his visitors and posed for pictures with anyone who asked. His mother, Helen Law, wearing a long-sleeved blue and white striped dress, arrived in her wheelchair but had trouble breathing in the crowd and left early.

At one point, Cardinal Law, surrounded by a group of Boston dignitaries including Mayor Raymond L. Flynn, former governor Edward J. King and state Senate President William M. Bulger, was asked to pose for a photo. The cardinal said he would do it only if the group would do a favor for him -- sing the old Irish song, "A Mother's Love Is A Blessing."

And they did, raising their voices in a loud refrain.

Mayor Flynn, wearing an "I Love Boston" pin, got a laugh when, while introducing the American ambassador to Italy, Maxwell Rabb, said the most important thing about the American diplomat, a long-standing personal friend of President Ronald Reagan, was not his rank or his connections but the fact that he was born at Boston City Hospital.

A few minutes earlier, artist Margaret Puccia of West Roxbury, Mass. teetering at the edge of the reflecting pool to take a snapshot of the cardinal, had tumbled into the water. Although she suffered a mildly sprained ankle in her fall into the pool, which is decorated by a modern sculpture donated by the late Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston, she was undaunted and said she was having a wonderful time.

Also standing near the new cardinal, who appeared relaxed and rested despite the rapid succession of major ceremonies, were Massachusetts Reps. Salvatore F. DiMasi of Boston's North End and Angelo M. Scaccia of Hyde Park and Boston City Councilor Thomas M. Menino.

DiMasi appeared to express the views of many of the guests, midway through their visit to Rome, when he said he was overwhelmed by the events he had witnessed.

"I was just a little parochial school kid, and now here I am bearing witness to such amazing historical developments," he said. "One really feels part of something big. These consistories were going on 500 years ago and they'll still be going on 500 years from now."

That sentiment was echoed by Edward Cunningham, a parishoner of St. Bridget's in Framingham, Mass., who had come to Rome with his daughter, his son and his daughter-in-law to honor Cardinal Law.

"For us this has been an awesome and historical event. We'll never see such a thing again in our lifetime," he said of Saturday's consistory, at which 28 Roman Catholic churchmen were elevated to cardinals. A majority of them, Cunningham pointed out, were under 60.

"We're terribly proud of our Archbishop," said Cunningham, who has been told he resembles Cardinal Law, "but I have to admit we also came to see the Pope. It has been so thrilling to see so dynamic a leader in person."

For Marie Borgette, who will be 91 in September, the trip to Rome was also a chance of a lifetime. Borgette arranged with her daughter, Claire, to come to Rome as soon as she heard last month that Archbishop Law had been designated a cardinal.

"He's a wonderful man," she said, "and I know that, together with Pope John Paul, the two of them will do so much to bring back spirtuality to our way of living."

For some of those at the reception, there was also a personal significance. Chris Law, 23, a second cousin of the cardinal, said, "This is the biggest thing that ever happened to our family." He said 50 of Cardinal Law's relatives had come to Rome for the consistory, including family members from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Washington, North Carolina, Virginia and California.

The cardinal's young second cousin said he had attended Friday night's special dinner with the cardinal for his relatives. "But he had been doing an awful lot to get the family closer together even before he became cardinal," the young man said.

For Frank Power, retired assistant basketball coach from Boston College who with his wife, Eunice, has been spending the last six months in Ireland as a lay apostle, the week in Rome has had something nearly miraculous about it.

"We made plans to come to Rome this week back in February, and it was so exciting to find that it coincided with this wonderful event," said Power. "I thought my experience in Ireland was moving, but the events here this week are turning out to be the most moving experience of my life."

As dusk fell over the animated crowd of guests -- priests, nuns, a few bishops, and for the most part the pilgrims of Boston, Rev. Brendan O'Riordan of Boston summed up the mood of joy.

"After Boston comes heaven," he said smiling, "but Rome is also really pretty good."

This story ran in the Boston Globe on 5/27/1985.
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