BALTIMORE-
Roman Catholic Cardinal William Keeler was hospitalized in Italy after a car crash that killed a retired priest and injured another American clergyman, the Archdiocese of Baltimore said Monday.
The three men were driving through the city of Terni, about 60 miles from Rome, when a car struck the passenger side of their vehicle on Saturday, archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine said.
Father Bernard Quinn, 78, a retired priest from the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pa., was in the back seat and died of his injuries, Caine said.
Monsignor Thomas Smith, 75, of St. Joseph parish in Lancaster, Pa., was driving, and Keeler, 75, was in the front passenger seat, Caine said. Both men were hospitalized–Smith with broken ribs and Keeler with a broken ankle–but will probably be released Tuesday, said Bishop W. Francis Malooly, auxiliary bishop of the Baltimore archdiocese.
The three priests were longtime friends and often vacationed together, Caine said. Keeler, one of 13 U.S. cardinals eligible to take part in a papal election, is a former bishop of Harrisburg.
Quinn was born in Kansas City, Mo., and was ordained as a priest in 1953. He held assignments in Rome and in several U.S. states and taught courses at the Catholic University of America before settling in the Harrisburg diocese in 1987. He retired in 2001.
