Emissary?

One night during the Quebec Conference, Jean Marie Rodrigue, Cardinal Villeneuve, Archbishop of Quebec, had dined with President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Thereupon he canceled a projected trip to Mexico. A big Lancaster bomber flew him from Montreal to Britain (it was the first plane trip of his 60 years and he loved it). In London he stayed in a darkly elegant house behind Westminster Cathedral as the guest of Archbishop Bernard Griffin, called briefly on Canadian High Commissioner Vincent Massey and other officials. He had an audience with King George VI.

He visited Canadian servicemen in camps and hospitals. He praised 1,200 Canadian troops in Westminster Cathedral for their "heroic courage." Of Britain, which he had not seen since war began, the Cardinal said: "One has to see with one's own eyes to believe and to measure the dreadful effects of war and also to appreciate the . . . incomparable endurance [of Britons]."

Then he was off, by plane again, to Italy. In Rome last week, he lived at the maison mere of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (he is a member of the Order) near the Colosseum. The purpose of his trip, he said, was merely to visit Canadian troops, report to the Pope, as every bishop is required to do periodically.

Many thought the Cardinal's trip had a larger, undisclosed purpose. Was Cardinal Villeneuve carrying a message to Pius XII from Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill? Cried the Vatican: "Fantastic!" But observers noted that when Cardinal Villeneuve went in for his hour's talk with the Pope, he carried a bulky envelope sealed with five wax seals. He came out without it.

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