The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-03-07

sarily infallible. He Is a man acting
according to his lights"
HE is your legitimate SUPERIOR"
protested "And he speaks for thu
Church. What he says goes?"
''It doesn't go with me-" declared
Peter, frigidly. Il know when Tn
right"
We said no more just then. Peter
seemed indisposed to explain himself
further, while well, I fear 1 NIGH
have explained myself rather too fully
for both my own and Peters good
But I hoped and prayed that Petel
might have sense.
Instead, Peter had wedding. Yes
Peter the Righteous deliberately
spurned the mandate of the Church
in whose teaching and authority he
still professed to believe, and before
justice of the peace had himself de
clared the husband of Mrs. Travers
They left town on their honeymoon;
and they never came back. Let us by
all means give Peter credit for some
OOSACO VI uCCOuSy' AAhO CuC pAOu1Sd
son, he went into a far country.
The far country in Peters case was
Minneapolis. How they ever got to
gether enough money to make that
trip is one of the numerous mysteries
connected with the career of Peter
the Righteous. And there must be a
fish market or two in Minneapolis
because Peter managed to get work
now and then We know from the
back files of some of the magazines
that Mrs. Peter whipped up her Pega
sus under the inspiration of her new
matrimonial venture, until the poor
steed contracted the staggers and the
careless lapse; and the infrequency
with which the Travers verse to-day
appears indicates that the lady has
been receiving editors regrets.
=
Once-just once-Peter wrote me
from Minneapolis. He wanted to ne
gotiate loan. That was the real rea,
son why he condescended to address
himself to me, but he took pains not
to make it the ostensible motive. The
hint about filthy lucre was stuffed
away on page four; the letter in gen
eral was sort of apologize pro vita
sua-Peter's sort
"The world doubtless misunder
stands me-" wrote Peter, "but I pay
little heed to the world. suppose my
marriage-which certain conservative
elements in the Catholic Church did
not approve-has been a cause OF
scandal and gossip in your little one
horse town. Let it. I don't care q
fig what people may say or think, be
cause l have right on my side. My
conscience is with me- = Is Since
my coming here l have considerable
spare time, and I have gone in for
some serious reading. I have been
investigating the evolution of religion
AS you know, I have always been
singularly open-minded, so you will
not be surprised to learn that l re-
gard the claims of the Catholic Church
as the sole guardian of revealed truth
to be considerably selfish, to say the
least She is unquestionably the best
organized of all religious forms; but
she has no right to put her shackles
on progressive mind. Personally,
refuse to be shackled. Not to refuse
would be false to my own perceptions
of fundamental truth. I would rather
be right than be Catholic"
There was a good deal more in a
similar strain 1t made me itch to kick
Peter. If he had only managed to dc
something desperately bad and then
glory in his badness, I should have
liked him better; but here he was
turning aside from both the theory
and practice of his religion, and al
the time assuming that such was fol
him the right thing to do.
=
1 wrote promptly-a rather incoher
ent letter, I fear; and as 1 made the
mistake of inclosing check, I re
ceived no reply. Five years passed
and I heard nary word of Peter
Then, one summer, as Billy Thorne
and I were on our way East to attend
a convention on State Street in Chi
cago, we bumped into Peter the Right
eous.
Frankly, he didn't look the part. He
was down at heels and out at elbows
his face was unshaven and he smelt
of liquor. But anyhow he was Peter
the Peter who had been a member oil
the best debating team our old school
ever put into the diocesan tourna
ment, so we took him to dinner and
bought him a handful of his favorite
cigars. And bit by bit we drew from