Red Letter Days

To four Americans and four U.S. communities came the second greatest honor the Church of Rome can bestow:

New York's plump, tireless, globetrotting, auctorial* Archbishop Francis Joseph Spellman learned of his elevation on the eve of going home to his father's for Christmas in Whitman, Mass. Asked if his appointment made this his happiest homecoming, he said: "The happiest was the day I came home ordained after five years away and said Mass for my father and mother." The onetime grocer's boy and champion horseshoe pitcher, now the able and beloved shepherd of Catholicism's richest archdiocese, is one of Pius XII's closest friends, served under him in Rome. He may become Vatican Secretary of State.

Detroit's brainy, golf-playing, labor-minded Archbishop Edward Mooney was the first American to hold the high diplomatic post of Apostolic Delegate (to India and to Japan). He was elected chairman of the U.S. hierarchy's policy-making body, the National Catholic Welfare Conference, soon after his return to the U.S. in 1933--presumably at the Vatican's behest. He has made the N.C.W.C. a force to be reckoned with in U.S. life, from the movies and social welfare to education and political questions like the draft. He is reported once to have said: "If your score is over 100 you are neglecting your golf--if it falls below 90 you are neglecting your parish." When 63-year-old Cardinal-designate Mooney flies to Rome, it will be his first air trip.

Chicago's balding, scholarly Archbishop Samuel Alphonsus Stritch, N.C.W.C. vice-chairman, gave his apostolic benediction to a high-school group of Christmas carolers, said modestly: "It pleased me greatly that our Holy Father has so signally honored the archdiocese of Chicago. . . . The honor done to my person fills me with overwhelming gratitude." The Cardinal-designate, a builder as well as a scholar, at 58 has behind him. a long record of achievement: Bishop of Toledo at 34, Archbishop of Milwaukee, then of Chicago.

The fourth American Cardinal-designate, Irish-born, 83-year-old Archbishop John Joseph Glennon of St. Louis, is a great builder and money-raiser. Consecrated bishop in 1896, he is also dean of U.S. Catholic archbishops. He received the first news of his elevation before Sunday breakfast, when a local radio station phoned him. Then messages came from his old friends Baseball Fan Jim Farley and Archbishop Spellman, finally official notification from. Apostolic Delegate Cicognani. When he was sure, Cardinal-designate Glennon spoke like a loyal St. Louisan: "The Holy Father didn't forget St. Louis. . . . Our Catholic people show greater fervor, more unity of spirit, deeper interest in Catholic activities the world over. The Holy Father must have had these things in mind when he gave the occupant of this see the Cardinal's hat, the first city west of the Mississippi to attain this honor. . . ."

*A prolific writer of prose and verse, Archbishop Spellman is also one of the world's highest paid (he gives the money to charities): he has made $250,000 from his writing in the last three years. Last year Good Housekeeping paid him the highest price ever paid for a single poem.

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