Religion: Catholics & Chance

Last week, nearly a year after Bishop Edmund F. Gibbons banned church-sponsored "bingo" games in his Albany, N. Y. diocese (TIME, Dec. 21, 1936), a further reaction against such games of chance was noticeable in the Catholic Church. Archbishop Samuel Alphonsus Stritch of Milwaukee had put a ban upon all games in which money or the equivalent could be won. Bishop Henry Althoff of Belleville, Ill. not only forbade church gambling but voiced the hope that his people would support their churches by direct contribution rather than parish parties and festivals. Archbishop John Joseph Glennon of St. Louis condemned gambling games as "unworthy of our Catholic people ... causing much scandal," and prohibited dancing and drinking at church-sponsored entertainments.

In Pittsburgh last week, Rev. James R. Cox, plump priest who once led a "jobless army" to Washington and announced himself a "Jobless Party" candidate for President of the U. S. in 1932, hit an unforeseen snag in a campaign by which he had hoped to raise $20,000 to pay the debts of his new St. Patrick's Church. Father Cox, who in 1935 charged people 25¢ apiece to see a "miraculous" image of Christ formed in soot on a chimney which he had transported to Pittsburgh from a coal miner's shack in Collier, Pa., lately thought up and copyrighted a "Garden Stakes" contest, with cash prizes of $25,000.

To anyone who sent him $1, Father Cox mailed a "St. Christopher Miraculous Medal" and a blank on which to suggest three names for the garden of St. Patrick's Church. The priest hired a promoter, one B. J. Clifford of Cleveland, and 25,000 people entered the contest. Said the Christian Century, best-edited U. S. Protestant weekly: "Not even a 'miraculous medal' can perform the miracle of transforming this sort of traffic into anything other than a disgrace to the church."

Not even a miraculous medal, it appeared last week, could make Father Cox's contest look right to the U. S. Post Office Department. Day before the "Garden Stakes" was to close, Father Cox was arrested on charges of Pittsburgh's U. S. Attorney, released on $3,000 bond. He was accused of 1) using the mails to defraud; 2) conducting a lottery. Angry, red-faced Father Cox protested that he had talked with Postmaster General Farley before starting his contest, had been told to go ahead. Cried he: "They'll have to call out the troops first before I fail these good people."

The priest, whose bishop had apparently not been consulted before the contest began, said that he had promised 75% of gross receipts to Promoter Clifford. But this was denied by Clifford, also under arrest last week in Cleveland. Post Office Department officials declared they had warned Father Cox he was subject to investigation when his contest started. Since no one ordered the contest stopped last week, "Garden Stakes" employes continued sorting names suggested for the garden of St. Patrick's Church.