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Indiana's Bishop John F. Noll, a charter member of the Huntington (Ind.) Rotary Club (whose current president is a priest), said he was certain the Vatican had been misinformed about Rotary in the U.S., and that it would withdraw its ban on ecclesiastical memberships once the matter had been explained. Father John Fullerton, director of Toronto's Catholic Charities, said he would not drop his membership in Rotary until officially informed of the decree. Father Thomas F. Nenon of Memphis said: "I can't understand it at all. I can't see anything in Rotary contrary to the laws of the church."
Meanwhile, at least one member of the North American hierarchy began to put the new order into effect. Montreal's Archbishop Paul-Emile Léger, said to be slated to be Canada's next cardinal, forbade priests in his archdiocese to participate in any Rotary or "neutral" club, explained: "It is not up to me to interpret the Pope's announcements. When the Pope speaks, Catholics have nothing else to do but accept his directives."
* From its original custom of rotating meeting places, and the practice of rotating business among members.