The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1953-05-29

two days before in Moscow for the
first time since his capture.
There was dignity in the priests
face as he quietly answered the
barrage of questions from the
press and q thoughtful look in his
eyes as he recalled the fellow.
missioners he had left behind, in.
Guiding the late Bishop Patrick J.
Byrne whom he had served as sec
retary since 1949 and whom he had
buried beneath the frozen earth of
Korea in November 1850.
He knew he was going to die
the night he was removed to a
ezing hut we called the
morgue'. The sick were sent in to
die" Father Booth recalled. "He
told us how happy he mad been to
share Imprisonment with us"
Father Booth stated that at any
time during his long imprison-
ment the Bishop, who was Apostol-
ic Delegate to Korea, could have
requested diplomatic privileges
and received better treatment.
"But he never did," the freed
missioner said. "He wanted to
stay with US"
Father Booth told of the day of
his capture when Bishop Byrne,
who had been in hiding in the
Seoul Cathedral rectory was sight
ed by North Korean Reds as he
said his office on second floor
porch. The two were ordered
downstairs and placed under arrest.
The irony of it, Father Booth
said, was that the Reds arrived in
jeep that they had confiscated-
a jeep given to Korean mission
aries by War Relief Services-Na-
tional Catholic Welfare Confer
ence.
Then followed the long impris-
onment and movement from one
camp to another. Bishop Byrne and
Father Booth both were clad only
in light shirts and trousers when
they were captured. Following the
now notorious eight-day 100-mile
death march, Bishop Byrne became
more seriously i'll.
Special tribute was paid by Fa-
ther Booth to Monsignor Thomas
Quinlan, a Columbian missionary
who was a fellow prisoner of the
Reds but now has been repatriated
to Ireland. He was an "incorrigible
optimist," Father Booth said.
Throughout the death march, Fa-
ther Booth said, the Monsignor
supported an 82-year-old French
priest, Father Villemont, on one
side, while two other French
priests helped the aged man along
on the other arm.
Three days after the death
march began, Father Booth said,
Bishop Byrne was removed to "the
morgue."
After his own long imprison-
ment during which he suffered
from a carbuncle on the back and
from paltry prison food, "it was
caviar at every meal all across
Russia" Father Booth said when
liberation finally came.
Father Booth said that at least a
dozen times during questioning, his
communist captors tried to indoc-
trinate him and other Catholic in
ternees. "We got a kick out of
that" he said, land / think we in
doctrinated them more than they
did U.S."
He told of celebrating in Mos
COW his first Mass in two years and
ten months. 1t was the Mass of the
Resurrection, he said that he was
permitted to offer through special
faculties arranged by Father
Georges Bissonnette, A.A., us.
priest serving Embassy personnel
in Moscow.
In his home here, his mother
busted herself about the house,
still with the happy CLINT in her
eye and her chin up-tilted as she
had been during the wait for his
arrival at the airport. AT length,
she called him to the first family
meal-but Father Booth explain
ed he could not eat because his
system still had not recovered
from the poor diet he had while a
prisoner.
AS his family sat down to the
table, Father Booth relaxed in an
easy chair. He looked up at a make
shift cardboard on the wall, on
which we're pasted cartoon cut-outs
and the words:
eWeIpor,1e Home Father RiiI -