Battle of Lexington

Last January Rev. Julius Arnold Velasco, 31, rector of St. John's Church (Episcopal) of Dayton, Ky., journeyed to Ellicott City, Md. There, by a Catholic priest, he was married to a Catholic girl, blonde Catherine Rogers. Quickly, back in Kentucky, rumor began to spread that Rector Velasco had broken a promise. His ecclesiastical brethren in the diocese of Lexington, Ky., had known of his courtship. Therefore, before his ordination, he had been asked by a committee of the diocese to pledge that in the event of his marrying a Catholic, he would resign his orders. Greatly exercised by Rector Velasco's deed was Right Rev. Henry Pryor Almon Abbott, Canadian-born onetime rector of Chicago and Baltimore churches, Bishop of the Lexington diocese since May 1929. Soon both Bishop Abbott and Rector Velasco had plenty to say.

Fortnight ago Rector Velasco was placed on trial before an ecclesiastical court of five local Episcopal priests, charged with: 1) violating his preordination pledge; 2) conduct unbecoming a minister; 3) using defamatory language about Bishop Abbott. Rector Velasco claimed that his pledge had been revoked before his nuptials. Said he: "Love does not wait on religious persuasion. I married her not because she is a Roman Catholic but in spite of it. . . . I want my orders as much as any man ever wanted to serve his God, but I see no reason why I should not marry the girl I love." The court found that Rector Velasco's pledge had indeed been expunged from the records, acquitted him from charges 1 and 2, held him guilty of charge 3, sentenced him to a reprimand from Bishop Abbott.

Holding, despite the court findings, that Rector Velasco had broken his "plighted and written pledge," that it would be impossible for a bishop to recognize such a man in his diocese, Bishop Abbott last week went to a meeting in Christ Church Cathedral, Lexington; characterized the sentence of a reprimand as "absurd." Then he astounded his colleagues by resigning his Bishopric. Afterwards he donned knickers and an eyeshade, sought the quiet golf links. Said he: "So far as I am concerned, the Roman Catholic issue made no difference. . . . It was merely a question of the honor and integrity of an ordained priest. . . ."

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