Canada: QUEBEC: No Rotary for Catholics?

To the 25 members of the Maniwaki* (pop. about 2,000) Rotary Club, the weekly luncheons, speeches and songs were a special delight. Most Maniwakians, sons of rugged, cheery, gregarious lumberjacks, liked nothing better than these get-togethers.

Last week, devout Catholics who were also Rotarians were told by their spiritual father, Bishop Eugene Limoges of Mont-Laurier, that this was wrong. In a 900-word pastoral letter read from all diocesan pulpits, Bishop Limoges said: “Catholics cannot be neutral [in effect, they cannot divorce their social life from Catholicism]. . . . Instead of frequenting non-Catholic . . . clubs, they should establish, for themselves exclusively, similar associations.” Specifically mentioned: Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, Elks, Moose.

Within 48 hours, membership in Mani-waki’s Rotary had been cut in half. The others decided to surrender their charter. In other dioceses there was no move to follow where Bishop Limoges led.

* Meaning “Town of the Virgin,” from the Indian Mani, “the Virgin Mary,” and waki, “the town.”