FRANCIS SPELLMAN

FRANCIS SPELLMAN

(1889- 1967) American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York. Great anti-communist content T.L.S. on "Cardinal's Residence" letterhead, 1p. 4to., New York, Feb. 21, 1949, to the president of the Catholic Actor's Guild, in part: "...I am very grateful to you...for the Resolution which you unanimously adopted on the occasion of my protesting the arrest and mock trail of Cardinal Mindsenty [Hungarian cardinal who was tortured and given a life sentence for opposing communist persecution in his country]..I am praying, hoping and working that the flood-tide of atheistic communism will be stopped before it engulfs Christian civilization." Spellman signs at the conclusion in black ink as the "Archbishop of New York". Vehemently anti-Communist, the Archbishop once said that "�a true American can neither be a Communist nor a Communist condone..." and that "...the first loyalty of every American is vigilantly to weed out and counteract Communism and convert American Communists to Americanism...".