Religion: Strike the Shepherd

Father Patrick J. Byrne was 35 when he went to Korea to open the first mission of the American Maryknoll Fathers there. That was 29 years ago. Thereafter, save for a six-year assignment in the U.S., Father Byrne made the Far East missions his life work. He was a missionary in Japan when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, but thanks to his widely known charities he was never interned. Later he returned to Korea as bishop and apostolic delegate. There, he denounced the Communist persecution of priests in North Korea. The Communist formula, he wrote, was: "Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered."

When the Communists invaded South Korea, Byrne refused to leave his flock in Seoul. He was arrested and later taken far north of the Communist line, along with his secretary, Father William Booth. Reports reaching Seoul said that he was weak and ill-treated. Last year, during the truce talks, Father Booth's name appeared on a list of civilian prisoners, but not Bishop Byrne's. The Communists refused to answer questions about him.

Last week, "on the basis of information received" from Korea, the Vatican declared Bishop Byrne dead, a victim of the Korean war. If the Vatican conclusion is correct, he is the second Roman Catholic bishop from the U.S. to die in Communist hands. The other, Francis X. Ford, also from Maryknoll, died last February in a prison hospital in Canton.