Cardinal Spellman Dead

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31543, 4 December 1967, Page 13

Cardinal Spellman Dead

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, Dec. 3. The 45-million United States Roman Catholic community today mourned the death of their senior prelate, Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York, who died suddenly in New York yesterday. He was 78.

The first American bishop to be consecrated in St Peter's Basilica in Rome, Cardinal Spellman raised the New York archdiocese from debt to prosperity in 28 years. However, controversy also surrounded the 78-year-old cardinal, who died in St Vincent’s Hospital of “a massive cerebral accident.” A major political-religious row raged around him almost a year ago when he placed himself behind United States involvement in the Vietnam war; but criticism was not new to him.

Among controversial mat- I ters which had him under I fire during his lifetime was his praise of General Franco, I of Spain, and his endorse- I ment of the late Senator I Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Com- I munist campaigns. Vatican sources expressed I displeasure with him' after his I warlike statements on Viet- I nam, made before an audi- I ence of servicemen in Saigon I last Christmas Eve. He said the Vietnam war I was a war for civilisation, I and that anything less than I victory was inconceivable. Moscow Radio accused him I of openly contradicting the I Pope’s appeal for peace, and I his remarks drew criticism I around the world. Cardinal Spellman has been I described as the first 100-per- I cent American cardinal. He was the first bishop ever to hold a pilot’s licence and , his world-wide travels, especi- ' ally to visit American forces during the Second World War and the Korean War, kept his name constantly before the public. Born on May 4, 1889, in Whitman, Massachusetts, Cardinal Spellman was educated at Whitman High School, and graduated from Fordham University in New York City. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 14, 1916. From 1925 to 1932 he served on the Vatican Secretariat of State—the first American to do so—and rapid promotion followed. One of the first acts of Pope Pius XII was to appoint . Bishop Spellman Archbishop J of New York, and he was , named a cardinal on Febru- ‘ ary 21, 1946. * Pope Paul received “with ‘ deepest sorrow” news of the death of Cardinal Spellman, . and went immediately to his ‘ private chapel to pray. : President Johnson last night among the world leaders mourning the death of J Cardinal Spellman, expressed regret that thousands of ! United States troops in Viet- 1 nam would for the first time 1 in many years not be comforted by his presence at 1 Christmas.