Cardinal McCarrick visits soldiers wounded in Iraq at Army hospital

Published: 2003-12-17

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Army Spc. Michael Picio, a 21-year-old mortar infantryman, was lying on his back in bed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center when Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington walked in to see him. The infantryman's right leg was in a cast while he was awaiting surgery and skin grafts to repair it. He was wounded in a "friendly fire" incident Nov. 27 in Tikrit, Iraq. Though in pain as he awaited surgery to straighten out his leg, Picio smiled and invited Cardinal McCarrick in. The meeting was one of several with military personnel at the medical center, where Cardinal McCarrick also celebrated the noon Mass with several Catholic chaplains Dec. 11. Military personnel, medical staff and others attended the Mass and chatted with the cardinal at a reception after Mass. Afterward the cardinal went up to one ward where he visited some soldiers who were immobilized in their rooms.

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