Vatican Visit

New York's Archbishop Francis Joseph Spellman, leader of the richest Catholic See in the world and personal friend of Franklin Roosevelt, last week returned to Spain after an eleven-day visit to the Vatican. During those eleven days Archbishop Spellman conferred at least five times with His Holiness. During the same period:

--Former Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano presented his credentials as Italy's Vatican envoy.

--Germany and Finland recalled their Vatican envoys, for "consultations," and Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop made a hurried visit to Benito Mussolini.

--Hungarian, Argentine and Chinese envoys conferred with the Pope.

In Spain, Archbishop Spellman talked with U.S. Ambassador Carlton J. H. Hayes, Francisco Franco and Foreign Minister Count Francisco Gomez Jordana, said mass in Seville's Cathedral. Then he headed by motorcar for Gibraltar, on his way to visit U.S. troops in North Africa. He traveled as a churchman but, considering the Vatican's sources of information, he undoubtedly had more knowledge of some of World War II's behind-the-scenes diplomacy than most of the world's statesmen.

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