On the Red Arrow

Small, twinkle-eyed George Antonio Laberge of Rhode Island is the only American Roman Catholic priest in Moscow.* In a country where the ruling party requires its members to be militantly atheistic, any man who wears a Roman collar sometimes has to fend attacks on his clerical dignity.

Recently on the Red Arrow, night train from Leningrad to Moscow, Father Laberge was assigned a bed in a four-berth compartment with three women. Such scrambled bookings are not unusual on Russian trains, but these women were no ordinary travelers. They were party members on their way to a party powwow, and the opportunity to cross-examine a priest delighted them. Asked one: "Now tell us the truth. Do you really believe the Pope is infallible?" Said the priest: "Yes, in matters of faith and morals, the Pope is infallible." But he continued: "I'm going to ask you a question, and I warn you to be careful of what you say. Do you believe that Stalin is infallible?"

The laughter died to a strained silence. Father Laberge removed his shoes, climbed into his upper berth, and began reading his breviary. Nobody asked him any more questions for the rest of the trip.

* In the Litvinoff-Roosevelt Agreement, under which the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began diplomatic relations in 1933, the Russians promised to permit facilities for religious worship by members of the U.S. diplomatic mission. Last month the U.S. State Department called it the only stipulation among a half dozen that the Kremlin had fulfilled.

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