Arctic Bishop

Eskimo winters are long and dreary. Summers are short and dreary. When Eskimos are not busy mushing about, gobbling raw meat and candles, they sit down for a rubber of bridge. And many Eskimos play rather well, too. At Churchill, Canada's new wheat port on Hudson Bay (TIME, Sept. 14), 30 men meet regularly for jump-bids and approach-forces throughout the winter. For one of these there had to be a substitute last week; Arsene Turquetil had laid aside his cards, put on his fur cap and gone down south to Montreal. Arsene Turquetil was hard to replace. He is not only a good bridge player; he is also a good shot, a fine musher, and Canada's famed, revered ''Arctic Bishop." He was going to Montreal to be consecrated as Vicar Apostolic of Hudson Bay which, comprising some 1,600,000 sq. mi. of snow and ice. is probably Rome's largest vicariate.

In St. James Cathedral last week were 20 archbishops, bishops and abbots, in- cluding Archbishop-Coadjutor Georges Gauthier of Montreal, Monsignor Andrea Cassulo, Apostolic Delegate to Canada, Archbishop-Designate Jean Marie Rodrigue Villeneuve of Quebec who is likely to be Canada's next Cardinal. Said Bishop Georges Courchesne of Rimouski in the consecration sermon: "Your courage, Monsignor Turquetil, in overcoming the dread of a discouraging solitude and white silence of the North is explained by your ardent desire to serve God, convert pagans to Catholicism and increase the ranks of the Catholic population."

Eskimos have many tabus. They believe in spirits, in a cold, horrible Hell and a Heaven at the bottom of the sea, ruled over by the Great Goddess Nuliayok. The Eskimo language is difficult. How did Monsignor Turquetil, an Oblate Father journeying from France to Canada in 1900 at the age of 24--how did he shepherd 7,000 scattered souls during his 30 icy years? How gain entry to the Eskimo hut, be welcomed with "Qujangnamik"*?

Monsignor Turquetil learned to fish, shoot, trap, cook. He became an able air pilot, carpenter, blacksmith, mechanic. He mastered the Eskimo language, invented a typewriter upon which he typed hymnbooks, prayer-books, catechisms in Eskimo script. With other missionaries at Chesterfield Inlet he built a radio transmitter so that Eskimos may grunt at each other over the frigid air. Monsignor Turquetil, bearded nobly and baldheaded, is an able philologist. But chiefly he can gain converts by telling them how best to fish. Says he: "Taking fish out of the net is no easy job. If you take your hands out of the water for more than a second they will freeze solid. The only way is to take the cartilage of the fish's nose in your teeth, squeeze his body to make it smaller, and yank him out of the meshes. All the time the hands must be kept under the water. The Eskimo method is to dangle a small ivory fish with a hook on it. By this means they catch four or five fish a day at the ice hole. We hope to show them that by our methods they can catch 50 in an evening."

Long known as "The Bishop," although until last week he was only Prefect Apostolic, Monsignor Turquetil has not been coarsened by taking fishes' snouts in his mouth or by eating raw meat when fuel was lacking. He is urbane, worldly even. He is reported to have invented a new system of bridge-bidding but he insists that "too much stress is being laid on this side of my affairs." On his way to Montreal last month Monsignor Turquetil watched four men playing bridge. One bid a spade His partner, with four aces and three kings, passed. "I took one look at their hands,'' said the Arctic Bishop, "and then, overwhelmed, I moved into the next parlor car."

*"Thanks to the coming guest."

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