 Only twice in his pontificate did Pius XII hold a consistory to create new cardinals , in contrast to Pius XI , who had done so 17 times in as many years . Pius XII chose not to name new cardinals during World War II , and the number of cardinals shrank to 38 , with Dennis Joseph Dougherty of Philadelphia being the only living U.S. cardinal . The first occasion on 18 February 1946 — which has become known as the " Grand Consistory " — yielded the elevation of a record 32 new cardinals , almost 50 percent of the College of Cardinals and reaching the canonical limit of 70 cardinals . In the 1946 consistory , Pius XII , while maintaining the maximum size of the College of Cardinals at 70 , named cardinals from China , India , the Middle East and increased the number of Cardinals from the Americas , proportionally lessening the Italian influence . 
