Spellman to St. Patrick's

In front of St. Patrick's Cathedral (Roman Catholic) on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, grinds and glides the traffic of one of the world's greatest shopping districts. Last September that restless traffic patiently paused while the funeral procession of New York's Patrick Cardinal Hayes filed into the Cathedral. Last week the traffic patiently paused again, while 7,000 people crowded into St. Patrick's and 50,000 more lined the sidewalks outside. Preceded by the colors, the band and 50 men of the "Old 69th" regiment, dozens of bishops and 2,000 clergy marched into the Cathedral for the installation of the sixth Archbishop of New York, Most Rev. Francis Joseph Spellman.

At the Cathedral door stood its venerable rector, Monsignor Michael J. Lavelle. Doffing his purple cappa magna (long-trained cape), donning a golden cope and mitre, the Archbishop entered his Cathedral, ascended a throne on the Epistle (right) side of the altar. Old (83) Monsignor Lavelle, who next week celebrates his 60th anniversary at the Cathedral, read bulls certifying the Archbishop's appointment, dispatched by "Pius the Bishop, the Servant of the Servants of God." When the Monsignor reached the name of his longtime colleague Cardinal Hayes, he faltered, lost his place, fussed and fiddled with the bulls until a priest had to climb the pulpit, set him right. After many a prayer, Apostolic Delegate Amleto Cicognani installed the Archbishop simply by leading him to a throne on the Gospel side of the altar. The three-hour ceremony ended with a broadcast speech, in which the rich-voiced Archbishop took note that "this see to which I have been appointed is the richest see," declared: "While I am not unmoved ... I do not estimate this city's pre-eminence with the eyes of one who regards only the passing, external fashion."

Pope Pius XII regards Archbishop Spellman as one of the ablest churchmen for his age (50) in the U. S. As Secretary of State, the Pope consecrated "Frank" Spellman bishop in St. Peter's (he was the first American so honored), was much in Bishop Spellman's company when he visited the U. S. Pius XII made him New York's Archbishop eight weeks after he was elected Supreme Pontiff, is almost certain to make him a Cardinal, perhaps at a consistory next autumn.

Plump, round-faced Frank Spellman, grocer's son of Whitman, Mass., went to Fordham University, was sent to Rome's North American College on the recommendation of Boston's William Henry Cardinal O'Connell. He cut his clerical teeth in the Boston archdiocese, was its assistant chancellor before the Vatican summoned him in 1925 as its first U. S.-born member of the Secretariate of State. There he did such jobs as translating and delivering in English the first papal broadcast. In 1931, with feeling high between the Vatican and Fascist Italy, the Pope entrusted to Monsignor Spellman an encyclical on Catholic Action which he feared might be suppressed in Italy. The U. S. priest flew with it to Paris, there released it to the world. Although he did not pilot the plane on that trip, Monsignor Spellman held an Italian pilot's license, later obtained one in Massachusetts.

Returned to Cardinal O'Connell, Frank Spellman was no longer so popular with his highly individualistic superior as he once had been. There were reports that Bishop Spellman was now in line for the succession. He was given the minimum duties of an auxiliary bishop, and devoted himself earnestly to running a large parish. This he took in his stride. Modestly, he has often said with a touch of brogue: "I have always been a parish priest." And, of people who expect a prelate to be important-looking, he declares: "I never come up to expectations."

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