"She was not a mystical person in an unattainable niche. She battled against odds in the trials of life with American stamina and cheerfulness; she worked and succeeded with American efficiency." So the late Francis Cardinal Spellman characterized Elizabeth Bayley Seton, a 19th century Roman Catholic convert who founded the first American religious order, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. The cardinal was leading a pilgrimage to Rome, where Mother Seton was beatified by Pope John XXIII on St. Patrick's Day in 1963. Last week after 32 cardinals assembled in the Vatican to cast their ballots in a secret consistory,...
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