"God's P.I.O."

On St. Patrick's Day two years ago, an Irish-born war correspondent named Patrick O'Connor celebrated his own birthday by crossing the Han River in an amphibious Duck and entering newly liberated Seoul. From a plane a few days before, he had noted that Seoul's Catholic cathedral was still standing. Finding his way to it, O'Connor tolled its bell. From the seemingly deserted ruins, scores of Koreans emerged as if by magic. Newsman O'Connor said Mass for them.

No ordinary correspondent, greying, 54-year-old Reporter O'Connor had every right to officiate at the Mass and write a story about it the same day. He is a Roman Catholic priest. As correspondent for the National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service, Father O'Connor covers the Far East for more than 500 Catholic weeklies and magazines all over the world, has earned a reputation among combat reporters as one of the ablest in the Far East and been dubbed by them "God's P.I.O."*

Piety & Writing. Patrick O'Connor carries a reporter's notebook and a chaplain's Mass kit wherever he goes, often finds use for both. In Tokyo last week, he filed a story on 18 churchmen of all faiths visiting Japan as guests of the Army, heard confessions at a Catholic student center. Next day he wrote a feature story on the Catholic bishop of Seoul, followed it with a file on Crown Prince Akihito's departure for the British coronation. Then he slipped on his field uniform and caught an Army plane for his 15th trip to Korea. He flew to the front in a light plane, wrote a story about the presentation of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima to the First Marine Division, then helped chaplains celebrate Easter Mass, and got ready to go to Panmunjom to cover this week's armistice talks.

Dublin-born Pat O'Connor always had a hankering to be a writer. But he got his master's degree from Ireland's National University, studied for the priesthood, and was ordained in the Society of St. Columban. Young priests of the order usually go to the Far East. Instead, O'Connor was sent to the U.S. headquarters near Omaha, to edit the order's magazine, Far East (circ. 170,090). For 22 years he ran the magazine, often reminded his missionary contributors: "Piety is no substitute for writing technique ..."

Stories & Paratroopers. The National Catholic News Service sent him to Japan at war's end. When he appeared at Tokyo's Press Club, which often looks more like an overcrowded saloon than a correspondents' billet, Father O'Connor, in khaki pants, black coat and clerical collar, startled the members so much that one newsman said: "We felt as if Carry Nation had dropped in and asked to be billeted on top of the bar." Later, Correspondent O'Connor flew to Yenan, China, and in an exclusive interview with Chinese Communist Leader Chou Enlai, bluntly asked what would happen to religion under the Reds. Chou's reply: "Science will have solved all questions and this will automatically dispose of religion."

Father O'Connor has a good reporter's sharp eye for detail, lets the religious notes sound where they belong. In the early months of the Korean war, riding north to cover a combat jump with a Flying Boxcar of paratroopers, he heard confessions on the way to the target, blessed the men as they went out the door. "With marvelous precision," Father O'Connor ended his story, "our flight lands, each wide-winged plane seconds apart from the next on a sunny, peaceful field. We are hundreds of miles from where we saw men drop to danger. Shortly it will be noon--noon of Good Friday."

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