Two Visits to Korea

The G.I.s in Korea had two well-known clerical visitors from the U.S. with them for Christmas. From Manhattan came Francis Cardinal Spellman, who besides being Archbishop of New York is Vicar of the Military Ordinariate, responsible for the spiritual care of all Roman Catholics in the U.S. armed forces. From Titusville, Fla., where he interrupted a winter vacation with his wife Ruth, came Evangelist Billy Graham, on a flying tour sponsored by the Protestant churches of Korea.

The cardinal flew into Seoul just before Christmas, as he had last year, with a few gifts for the troops (100,000 cigarettes, 20,000 religious medals, 15,000 holy cards--showing the Nativity scene with a verse he had written for the occasion). As he walked toward a waiting car with General James Van Fleet, some 50 soldiers who had been waiting clustered around him. One called out, "Give us a blessing, Father." While the cardinal murmured the short blessing, they knelt quietly on the runway.

Billy Graham had arrived in Pusan a week earlier to do some preaching for Korean Christians. In five nights of preaching--three to largely Korean audiences, two to groups of G.I.s--more than i.ooo walked down the aisle to make "decisions for Christ." Said Evangelist Billy: "It makes no difference whether you are Korean, American, Chinese or Japanese. You are all sinners." In the Seoul area, the cardinal visited hospitals and various nearby units, faithfully taking the names of all the soldiers he talked to. (Last year he sent letters to the relatives of 6,000 after he returned to the U.S.) On Christmas Eve, he said midnight Mass at I Corps chapel, the next day flew up to the front, where he spoke to 2,500 marines in the ist Division's amphitheater, his stole, cassock and surplice fitting snugly over his G.I.

trousers and Army padded vest. Later in the day, he confirmed Major General James C. Fry, the 2nd Division commander, who recently became a Catholic.

When Evangelist Graham got to Seoul, he preached for five packed services in the Presbyterian church, then went up to the front just before Christmas to see the troops. The day before Christmas, in a tour of the central front, 5,000 men turned out to see him. Christmas afternoon he put aside his helmet and flak vest, flew back to Tokyo. Both Evangelist Graham and Cardinal Spellman left a great many calmer, happier Christians behind them in Korea. Graham also left a dog-tired Korean interpreter, the Rev. Han Kyung Chik, a Seoul pastor. Said Presbyterian Han, after two weeks of high-pressure translating for Billy: "Dr. Graham has such a lion's voice, so much power, and he speaks so rapidly, I can't let my mind wander a minute."

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