Archbishop O'Malley paid a visit to Gammarelli's yesterday. That, of course, is the tailor which for years designed vestments for popes, until Benedict XVI decided to shop around.

But Boston's cardinal-designate, most comfortable in the brown hooded habit and sandals of his Capuchin Franciscan religious order, went in on Monday to get fitted for the red choir robes he'll need to wear to the consistory Friday. He says he'll wear red vestments only "for top-drawer occasions,'' but the consistory, and the Mass of the rings on Saturday, certainly qualify.

How did he feel trying on the garments?

"I said that I could always wear it if I was called to be on a hunting expedition with the vice-president,'' he joked. "It's very red.''

The archdiocese, in Boston, just announced that it had again successfully passed an audit of its child protection programs. The auditors expressed one concern, about the fact that not all students had received abuse prevention training.

Archbishop O'Malley, who is in Rome, issued a statement saying, "anything short of full compliance is unacceptable. On behalf of the Archdiocese, I acknowledge our deficiency and renew our pledge to doing all that is possible to create safe environments in our churches and schools and to continuing to provide support to survivors and all people who have suffered as a result of clergy sexual abuse.''

David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, questioned the validity of the audits, saying, "These are surveys, not audits, conducted by retired government bureaucrats who see few church records and rely largely on verbal answers from the same chancery officials who have spent decades covering up horrific abuse."

Full coverage in Wednesday's Globe ...

On my first stroll through a sunny (!) St. Peter's Square at midday today, I collided, amidst the tourists and the souvenir kiosks, with two Boston television crews, and the Vatican press office appears amused by the small flood of Boston reporters who are descending on the Eternal City to cover Friday's elevation of Archbishop O'Malley to cardinal. Economic woes are reducing the size of the media presence here, and preventing a few outlets from coming at all, but there are already two dozen Boston media folks here, including journalists from the Globe, CBS4, WHDH-TV, and NECN, as well as WBZ radio, Boston Catholic Television, The Pilot, and a still photographer brought over for other archdiocesan publications. WCVB-TV is expected to send a crew later in the week, and is already promoting its "live from Rome" coverage.

It's still a far cry from the scores of reporters who came to Rome in 1985 to cover Archbishop Bernard F. Law's elevation to cardinal. That year, several stations sent as many as a dozen employees each to cover the consistory; this year, most are sending a crew of three (a producer, a cameraperson, and a reporter). There are two journalists here who also covered the consistory 21 years ago -- NECN prime time anchor R.D. Sahl, and WHDH-TV cameraman Don Nelson -- both of whom were employed by what was then WNEV-TV (Channel 7). The budgetary problems of the news media have clearly played a major role in reducing the number of reporters here this week, but Sahl said the atmosphere also has been transformed by the abuse crisis and other societal changes, and that, "laypeople have been looking at this one through a different lens.''

O'Malley, who has often seemed uncomfortable with the news media, and who avoided reporters as much as possible during his previous assignment in Palm Beach, Florida, was at the top of his game yesterday as he fielded questions for about 20 minutes from reporters gathered at the North American College, a residence for American seminarians in Rome. O'Malley was upbeat, funny, and seemingly at ease. He took several questions about Law -- not his favorite subject -- without displaying any irritation or displeasure -- and he has promised to take reporters on a tour of the Bridge of Angels (Ponte Sant´Angelo) in Rome tomorrow, as well as to be available to the local press for an unprecedented six days.

"We're very grateful to all of you and to the various media outlets that you represent for the resources that you've given to allow us to be able to be in contact with the Catholic community back in Boston and New England so that our people can feel that they're a part of this very important event in the life of the church,'' he said.

The Vatican today released a general description of Friday's events, along with a geographic analysis of the makeup of the College of Cardinals after 15 new members are admitted. The United States, home to just six percent of the world's Catholics, is getting two new cardinals, Archbishop O'Malley of Boston and Archbishop Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As a result, the U.S. will have 15 of the 193 cardinals, making it second only to Italy (with 40) in terms of number of cardinals. The developing world continues to be underrepresented, although their numbers have been increasing in the college in recent decades. (Of the 193 cardinals after Friday, 120 will be under age 80, which is the age limit for voting in any conclave upon the death of a pope.)

As for the ceremony, the Vatican confirmed that each of the new cardinals, including O'Malley, will exchange an embrace of peace with each of the existing cardinals, including Cardinal Bernard F. Law. O'Malley, sensitive to Law's status as a lightning rod in Boston, has asked that Bostonians understand that greeting as part of the Catholic ritual, saying "at Mass, we give the peace to everybody around us, and at the ceremony we will follow whatever the ritual is, as a sign of peace."
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Greetings from rainy Rome, where photographer David Ryan and I have just arrived and are off in search of the archbishop.

One item from last week's interview with the archbishop that is causing some chatter in my inbox is the assertion by one of his aides, Rev. Robert Kickham, that "Every effort is made to respond to every piece of correspondence." I heard from two folks who are not likely to be on Archbishop O'Malley's list of favorite correspondents, and they offered differing assessments of how well O'Malley's staff is doing at the important task of acknowledging input and invitations.

Chris O'Brien is a parishioner at St. Bernard's Church in West Newton; that parish was briefly closed and occupied, and is now reopened but fighting for its life as the archdiocese decides which parishes in Newton to close. Chris says letters from the Friends of St. Bernard's go unanswered. "The archbishop has been and continues to be out of touch with reality. His staff lets him believe that everything is doing just fine. The assertion that there is anything approaching a response to every letter is, of course, laughable. It casts a shadow over every other happy assertion by the archbishop in the interview."

But I also heard from Charles Martel, an outspoken gay Catholic who is a leader of the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry. Charles has been critical in the past of O'Malley's failure to acknowledge overtures from gay Catholics, but in response to the interview he writes to say, "A couple of weeks ago I sent O'Malley a letter on RCFM stationery identifying myself as a board member and also as project coordinator of Roman Catholics for the Freedom to Marry. I sent him two books, one about ten gay couples, and one by a lesbian about her life and her marriage to her partner Kathleen. I happened to meet both of these authors at a book reading, and asked each of them to inscribe a note to the archbishop. (neither of them ever imagined that kind of a request!!) I received a letter last week from the archbishop's secretary that was very cordial and gracious, expressing appreciation for sending the books. This is the first time I have ever received any reply to a letter to the archbishop."

Archbishop O'Malley warned me in the interview against generalizing based on anecdotes, but I think I can safely say, based on multiple interviews over the years, that the correspondence operation at chancery appears to have virtually collapsed in 2002, during the height of the abuse crisis, when the volume of letters and e-mails was just way more than the archdiocese could handle, and that the chancery continued to struggle with the huge volume of mail generated by the parish closings controversy. It now sounds like there are some indications that the situation is improving. Stay tuned.