Third Korean Christmas for 'GI' Cardinal

FivE convert soldiers were confirmed by Cardinal Spellman before he began his Midnight Mass attended by more than 1,000 troops in Central Korea. Major-General Thomas F. Hickey, of Boston, who accompanied the Cardinal on his three-day lour, acted as godfather. Cardinal Spellman, "the G.I.Cardinal," as he was called by one commander, had been spending another Christmas mountain-hopping in light planes and helicopters, and riding in jeeps along the slippery roads of Korea.
Between dawn on Christmas Eve and sundown on December 26, the Cardinal offered Mass five times for Service men in five different centres, and gave 16 talks—mostly from cold outdoor platforms—to audiences totalling more than 18,000. At the Cardinal's third Christmas Mass a choir of Netherlands soldiers with a Korean orphan boy sang Latin and Dutch Christmas carols. In rain and sleet the congregation stood firm. Bad weather forced the Cardinal to go by jeep to his next calling point. On the way he helped his companions to extricate four Korean soldiers from an upturned jeep.