Abram Eulogizes Cardinal Spellman; Lauds Prelate’s Actions at Ecumenical Council

The late Francis Cardinal Spellman, who died in New York yesterday, was eulogized by the head of the American Jewish Committee today as “a gentle, unpretentious and friendly human being” with whom the AJC enjoyed “a warm and long friendship.”

In a statement issued during the annual meeting of the Committee’s national executive board here, Morris B. Abram, AJC president, said of Cardinal Spellman: “The AJC will remember with appreciation the quiet but determined and effective personal leadership of the Cardinal in support of adoption of the Vatican Council’s declaration on non-Christian religions which called for ‘mutual knowledge and respect between Christians and Jews.’ Beneath his complex public image, we knew him as a gentle, unpretentious and friendly human being, and memories of our close association with him will long be cherished. In the spirit of our ancient tradition, we pray that ‘his soul be bound up with the bonds of eternal life.”