Dollars and Damnation

Prayerful and penitent last week were six Roman Catholics of Montreal--Albert Desjardins, Adonis Paquette, Alfred L'Archeveque, Lyall Huet, Edouard Pharon, H. N. Bordeleau. For four months they had been excommunicated, damned, cut off from the Sacraments of their Church. Reason: they had "dared cite" their Archbishop in civil court, without his permission. Now they awaited another decree (from the Holy See) restoring them to grace. They had bowed to the Church's will, acknowledged their error.

Three years ago M. Desjardins and friends brought suit against Montreal's

Archbishop Coadjutor Georges Gauthier,* the corporation of the archdiocese, and St. Etienne parish, for $261,939.83 in notes of the parish, which the plaintiffs, and 75 other noteholders, claimed had been guaranteed by the first two defendants. According to canon law, however, an ecclesiastic or a religious corporation may not be sued without his or its permission. Although the plaintiffs said they asked for permission five times, they received no reply. They went ahead and sued anyway. Then the Consistorial Congregation announced that by their act they had incurred excommunication. Plaintiff Bordeleau, alarmed, ducked out of the suit last January. The other plaintiffs last fortnight withdrew their suit against the Archbishop and the corporation. Said their counsel: "It is said, the Gauls feared only one thing, that Heaven might fall on their heads. Well! That is very much what happened." But the suit was not lost. St. Etienne parish acknowledged the debt, consented in court that judgment be recorded against it. Last week, while the six devout plaintiffs awaited notice of their restoration to the Church, all that remained was to find $261,939.83 to pay off the notes.

Last week a judgment for $250,000 plus $132,756,78 in interest, stood against the Benedictine Society of Latrobe, Pa.--corporate name of the community of St. Vincent Archabbey. Decade ago the late Archabbot Aurelius Stehle, who had established a Catholic University in Peiping, China, borrowed $250,000 from Peiping's National City Bank at 7% (legal Chinese rate), for repairs and new buildings. Archabbot Stehle died, control of the university passed from the Benedictines to the Society of the Divine Word, and the loan went unpaid. In 1936, the bank brought suit against the Benedictines, who countered by claiming that their Archabbot, in conducting the affairs of the university, had acted independently of the Society. A Federal judge in Pittsburgh decided otherwise last fortnight. The Benedictines' attorney announced he would file exceptions, probably appeal.

*Archbishop Paul Bruchesi has been secluded in his palace since a mental breakdown 20 years ago.

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