Religion: 13 Million to One

At the weekly drawing of the French National Lottery one day last month, the winning ticket was No. 301,207. To the holder of that stub went 13,000,000 tax-free francs ($37,143). The lucky man was a Roman Catholic priest, Sylvan Grandmougin, 52, Abbé of Attignéville.

No one could have been less surprised. Not a gambling man ordinarily, the abbe had bought his ticket with worthy motives and under good omens. Between routine parish rounds, he had driven up to Nancy in his rundown Dodge to take in a military festival. An intelligence major in World...

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