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Within the hour, Cardinal William Keeler arrived back in Baltimore and has been transported to the Archbishop's Residence there.

Accompanied by Msgr Thomas Smith -- who was driving as the two clerics were involved in a weekend car accident which killed the other passenger -- the cardinal left Rome earlier today on a private aircraft. The 75 year-old prelate, who suffered a broken ankle, and Smith, who sustained multiple cracked ribs, were cleared to travel while staying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome after their release from an Umbrian hospital near the collision site.

The cardinal is under strict instructions to put no significant weight on the ankle cast for 30 days, a period that includes the rededication of Baltimore's Basilica of the Assumption, scheduled for 5 November.


PHOTO: AP File/Gail Burton

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