Religion: Pulse Taken

Religion

Just before leaving Hyde Park for his triumphal return to Washington (see p. 23), President Roosevelt sent his Secretary Marvin H. Mclntyre and two automobiles to nearby Poughkeepsie to meet a special train arriving from Manhattan. Off the train stepped Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, Papal Secretary of State, Auxiliary Bishops Francis J. Spellman of Boston and Stephen J. Donahue of New York, the Cardinal Secretary’s gentleman-in-waiting, Enrico Galeazzo, and two Catholic New Dealers, Joseph P. Kennedy and Frank C. Walker, with their wives. The party was whisked over to Hyde Park for luncheon followed by a brief private chat between Cardinal and President. Two hours later, back in the special train, Cardinal Pacelli received newshawks, protected by Bishop Spellman from being badgered into saying anything more than: “I enjoyed my visit very much. It was a great opportunity to meet the President and his truly American family and to have luncheon with them.”

When Secretary of State Pacelli, highest ranking Vatican official ever to visit the U. S. while in office, disembarked in Manhattan last month, he declared that among other things he wished to “take the pulse” of the U. S. (TIME, Oct. 19). This wish he undoubtedly attained before his final inspection of the heart of the U. S. at Hyde Park. At Inisfada, the Manhasset, L. I. estate of rich and pious Mrs. Nicholas Frederic Brady, the Roman Cardinal had met the rich and great, pagan and Protestant as well as Catholic. More than one socialite had been so jittery about what to wear that hurried inquiries had been sent to the State Department’s Division of Protocol & Conferences, which stipulated morning coats, long-sleeved and high-necked frocks. Many a great lady got a new thrill as she curtsied, kissed the Cardinal’s ring. For everyone present well knew that this lean, smiling Italian prelate may well be the next Pope.

During his U. S. visit, Papal Secretary Pacelli also visited the Cardinal-Archbishops of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago. He made a dash to the Pacific Coast, where San Francisco’s Catholic Mayor Angelo Rossi kissed the episcopal ring, dashed back East to Manhattan, where Catholic Postmaster General James A. Farley also knelt.

At last week’s end the austere, astute Papal Secretary of State concluded what he called his month’s “vacation,” set sail for Italy. If there was anything deeply significant in his visit, the U. S. press, slickly and amiably handled by the Cardinal from start to finish, had not printed it. In the Vatican best opinion remained that he had gone to the U. S. primarily to see and be seen by as many as possible of the hierarchy which shepherd 20,000,000 Catholics. But, though Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli would be grievously offended were it mentioned in his presence, fact remains that he is outstandingly papabile (eligible for the papacy), would certainly not with draw as unworthy of the honor if offered. He has for at least two years had the almost public backing of Pope Pius XI. Whether or not that backing may be nullified by political jockeying in the conclave which elects the next Pope after Pius XI dies, Cardinal Pacelli could do himself no possible harm by showing himself to the nation whose Catholics give much toward supporting the Church, whose faithful have heretofore never seen a Pope, before or after election, on their own soil.