Banker-Priest

Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church forbids a priest to engage in business. But last week Bishop Joseph H. Conroy of Ogdensburg, N. Y. felt justified in stretching the letter of the law to permit one of his priests to become a bank president. Belgian-born, Rev. Cyril Stevens, 65, has for 21 years been pastor of small Ticonderoga's only Catholic church, St. Mary's. When Ticonderoga's National Bank looked shaky during the Bank Holiday of 1933, Father Stevens it was--his church being a stockholder and large depositor--who singlehanded saved the bank. The small, dynamic priest buttonholed Ticonderogans, bluntly demanded or cleverly cajoled contributions. Today Ticonderoga National Bank has some $1,000,000 in assets. In gratitude its directors elected Father Stevens to their board, made him honorary vice president. Fortnight ago the bank's President Roy Lockwood resigned in ill health. Unanimously the other Protestant directors chose Father Stevens to succeed him. Last week he accepted, aware that only nominally would he fill the unprecedented role of banker-priest. His term expires in four months; his only duties are to sign papers, attend meetings. Said he: "I'm a churchman, and not a banker. They simply asked me to serve, so I'm going to serve." When the newspapers began publicizing him, Banker Stevens closeted himself, threatened to resign if the "hounding" continued. Presidency of the bank is unnecessary to make Father Stevens Ticonderoga's No. 1 citizen. That he has been almost ever since he went there 21 years ago from Madrid, N. Y., where besides his pastorate he maintained a racing stable. Back in Belgium, one of his brothers. Pulpheld Stevens, is a priest. The other, Theophile, is vice president of the biggest bank in Brussels.

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