Religion: Boston's Bishop

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Bishop-elect Spellman will be consecrated in St. Peter's Sept. 8 by Cardinal Pacelli—first U. S. prelate so to be honored. He succeeds to the post of Auxiliary Bishop John Bertram Peterson, who last month became Bishop of Manchester, N. H. He is not entitled to automatic succession to the archbishopric of Boston. For that, his appointment as Bishop Coadjutor would be necessary.* Boston was pleased last week to get Monsignor Spellman, rating him a balanced blend of spirituality and practicality, resembling more Boston's late benign Archbishop John Joseph Williams, loved by Catholics and non-Catholics alike, than the present rich, intellectual but imperious Cardinal, who in the past nine months has been in headlines, flaying "crooning" (TIME, Jan. 18), "the big moneyed interests," and a radio priest (presumably Detroit's Father Charles E. Coughlin—TIME, April 25).