Ex-Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien Elevated to Cardinal The other American elevated to cardinal by the Vatican on Friday is a Bronx boy who exercises regularly on a treadmill, roots ardently for the Yankees and, according to friends, is so devoted to the idea of doing what he asks others to do that he learned how to parachute before serving as a military chaplain in Vietnam. The newly named cardinal, Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, 72, made 15 jumps before reaching Vietnam, all because he wanted to be closer to the kinds of soldiers he met while working at West Point. "I was marrying them in June and burying them a year later because they'd be shipped to Vietnam," he said in a telephone interview from Rome. Pope Benedict XVI's selection of Archbishop O'Brien among the 22 prelates he elevated to cardinal was not unexpected since it typically goes with the title he has held for the past six months: pro-grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. He is in charge of a largely lay order, dating to the Crusades in the 11th century, of 30,000 members, half of them in North America, and his ornate title essentially means he is the pope's representative to Catholics in the Holy Land - a diplomatically sensitive job given Middle East politics. He is also chief fund-raiser for the preservation of that region's sacred sites. Receiving the cardinal's crimson hat crowns a peripatetic career that has taken Archbishop O'Brien from the parish of Our Lady of Solace in the northeast Bronx to West Point to Vietnam, where he traveled by helicopter into jungle outposts to minister to troops, to Rome for doctoral studies in moral theology, and back to New York. There he worked as secretary or communications director for Cardinals Terence Cooke and John J. O'Connor, put in two tours as rector of St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers and was eventually appointed an auxiliary bishop. In 1997, he was named archbishop for the military services, making him the spiritual shepherd for 1.4 million Catholics. In 2007, he was installed as archbishop of Baltimore, an archdiocese he has continued to administer until a successor is named and one he said it will be sad to leave. "You get attached," he said. They say it's like a marriage. I expected to be there until I retired or went to God. Friends describe him as an affable, gracious man with a tart wit who has always exhibited the qualities needed for assuming power. "He's intelligent, enthusiastic, collaborative and very good at getting people to work together," said Msgr. Peter G. Finn, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish on Staten Island, who studied with him at St. Joseph's Seminary. Archbishop O'Brien was born April 8, 1939, in an Irish Catholic family that lived in a two-bedroom apartment in the Van Nest neighborhood east of the Bronx Zoo. His father died when he was 14, and, he said Friday, he and his two brothers were "adopted by Jewish families in the building who would look after us and made sure we did our homework." His mother worked as a secretary and delivered newspapers. His mother soon remarried, and the family moved to Westchester County. He went to high school at St. Mary's in Katonah. He said he could not remember when he did not want to be a priest. "It was the priests that I saw" that inspired him, he said. Bishop Gerald T. Walsh, the current rector of St. Joseph's and a schoolmate of Archbishop O'Brien's 50 years ago, said that calling also explains the archbishop's experience in Vietnam. "The whole idea is the priest as shepherd," Bishop Walsh said. I go where my people go, and that doesn't happen unless you're with them. At St. Joseph's, Archbishop O'Brien impressed classmates like Bishop Walsh not just with his pastoral skills but also with his talents in handball and baseball, relics of the sports-crazy streets of the Bronx. In 1965, he was ordained by Cardinal Francis Spellman and assigned to West Point. In Baltimore, Archbishop O'Brien made clear he is a firm supporter of the pope's doctrinal message, calling abortion the "greatest civil rights issue of our time" and opposing same-sex marriage. According to Sean Caine, the archdiocesan communications director in Baltimore, Archbishop O'Brien took over a parochial school system with 10,000 empty seats and closed 13 schools, leaving the archdiocese with 70. He has removed at least two priests who were accused of molesting children. He has not abandoned his Bronx roots. He has shown up at Our Lady of Solace almost yearly to confer the sacrament of confirmation. According to the church's pastor, Robert P. Badillo, he tells the seventh graders, "You're not standing up for something but for someone and that someone is Christ." And he warned Baltimore Catholics that he would continue to support the Yankees. He has made a point of showing up at Camden Yards when the Yankees visit, and he roots for the enemy.