________________________________________________ Cushing, FBI linked Files show J. Edgar Hoover cultivated friendship with cardinal in '50s, '60s By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff, 4/13/2000 Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the FBI aggressively cultivated a warm relationship with Cardinal Richard J. Cushing, supplying the powerful leader of Boston Catholics with material for his speeches and logistical help in his travels, according to documents obtained by the Globe. FBI agents around the world would greet Cushing as he traveled, providing him cars, drivers and other assistance. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover helped Cushing with his speeches, on one occasion supplying him a confidential memo about Hungary's political situation. The relationship between Cushing and Hoover, spelled out in 802 pages of files released by the FBI to the Globe in response to a request under the federal Freedom of Information Act, was built on a shared anticommunist fervor. The two men were prominent figures at a time when America was gripped by fear of Soviet domination - Cushing was Boston's archbishop from 1944 to 1970 and Hoover was FBI director from 1924 to 1972. The FBI considered Cushing to be a ''close,'' ''warm,'' and ''valued'' friend of Hoover, according to the documents. Cushing was on a list of Hoover's special correspondents, and the FBI kept close tabs on Cushing's health, whereabouts and honors he received or occasions he celebrated. The admiration was reciprocated. Cushing repeatedly sent gushing notes to Hoover, and in 1953 an FBI agent said Cushing told him ''in these parts if I quote J. Edgar Hoover, it's just like quoting the pope.'' The FBI, which had long kept its files secret, has in recent years been obligated by law to release many of the documents it has collected on personalities such as William Faulkner, Mickey Mantle, Frank Sinatra, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The files have been released gradually in response to requests by scholars, journalists, and others, and the FBI last week released the Cushing file. The files contain nothing to dramatically alter history's view of Cushing - in a 1954 memo an FBI agent wrote of Cushing, ''There is no derogatory information regarding this individual,'' and there are no documents in the file suggesting that assessment ever changed. But the files do shed light on the pervasiveness of the FBI's courtship of prominent Americans, including, apparently, leading clergy, like Cushing. ''The FBI tried to cultivate prominent personalities, and they were obviously cultivating him,'' said Athan G. Theoharis, a Marquette University historian and the editor of ''The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide.'' ''Clearly this was an attempt to influence public opinion through a respected Catholic leader with a following in the public,'' Theoharis said. Theoharis, who was briefed by the Globe on the contents of Cushing's FBI files, said he saw two elements of the files as potentially troublesome. He said Cushing's acceptance of travel aid from the FBI - agents would greet Cushing at airports and offer to drive him around - raised questions about whether such activities were a proper expenditure of public law enforcement money. For his part, Cushing was grateful for the aid. After returning from a 1960 trip, he wrote Hoover, who he was addressing as Edgar by that time: ''You are one in a million. Your men certainly gave us royal treatment wherever we went.'' Theoharis also said Hoover's assistance to Cushing in developing anticommunist themes could be seen as an inappropriate effort to enter the domestic political arena. ''They're a law enforcement agency, and they're supposed to be investigating individuals who violate federal law, not shaping public opinion,'' Theoharis said. But Boston College historian Mark I. Gelfand said the relationship between Cushing and Hoover must be seen in historical context. He said communism was particularly hostile to Catholicism, and that many Catholic prelates were jailed in communist countries. ''There's no question that the Catholic Church has always taken a very hard line against communism, because Marxism has denounced religion as a false system of beliefs that has held people in economic bondage,'' Gelfand said. ''Cushing reflected the viewpoint of American Catholics that communism was an enemy which had to be destroyed.'' That Hoover would court Cushing made sense, Gelfand said. ''Hoover was a very astute individual, and he recognized that the Catholic Church was an important element in his anticommunist crusade,'' he said. The FBI files suggest that Hoover first met Cushing on Sept. 27, 1952, when the FBI director came to Boston to join 1,200 men, including US Representative John F. Kennedy, at a testimonial dinner for the Boston archbishop. Hoover, who was a Presbyterian, had to be briefed on how to address the Catholic hierarchy. At the Statler Hotel that night, Cushing described Hoover as ''a tower of strength, of hope and encouragement to all America as the inspired leader of an organization without spot or stain,'' and Hoover said of Cushing, ''his towering figure has become a rallying point, encouraging his fellow citizens to battle against this heinous foe [of communism].'' Their symbiotic relationship lasted throughout the final two decades of each man's life. Hoover supplied Cushing with material for speeches, and at one point offered some suggestions for revisions for a catechism on communism that Cushing authored. Cushing, in turn, made his own suggestions, at one point suggesting that a ''What You Can Do to Fight Communism'' poster being distributed by the FBI be amended to include the words ''America - This Nation Under God - Pray. Pray. Pray.'' The two men saw each other occasionally when Cushing was in Washington - including in 1959, when Cushing spoke at the FBI Academy graduation - and Cushing was in frequent contact with FBI agents in Boston. The FBI agents in Boston kept Hoover apprised as to Cushing's health, passing along details of Cushing's bouts with asthma, shingles, ulcers, and a kidney tumor that at the time were unavailable to the news media. Cushing, whose anticommunist ardor was so great that at one point he founded an anticommunist youth group called Cardinal Cushing's Commandos, appeared to brook no criticism of Hoover. In 1958, Cushing sent a telegram to Hoover, warning of a ''smear campaign'' against the FBI and saying ''you are the Minute Men of our day. Our loyalty and fidelity to God and country requires that we stand solidly behind you.'' A month later, Cushing asked the FBI to provide him with periodic data that he could use to rebut attacks on the FBI. The files only hint at how the election of Kennedy, one of Cushing's parishioners, as president affected the cardinal's relationship with Hoover, who had poor relations with Kennedy's brother, Robert. In December 1960, Cushing predicted to an FBI agent that Kennedy would not name his brother attorney general; a month later, Robert F. Kennedy was sworn in. Two months later, Cushing in a note to Hoover, said: ''I am absolutely shocked by strange rumors concerning you in the press to the effect that you may not continue in your present office. If that ever happened, I will protest for the one and only time I would speak out.'' Hoover sent Cushing a note denying any friction in his relationship with Robert Kennedy . The files end abruptly on Nov. 6, 1970, with the following memo to Hoover from the special agent in charge of the FBI office in Boston: ''Please delete the name of RICHARD CARDINAL CUSHING from the list of SAC contacts of the Boston office as he is deceased.'' 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