“Some popes of Rome have been awful examples for the young.”
“So have men in all positions.”
He smiled and shook his head. “Yes, but when they set up as Christ’s apostles, they really should not indulge too freely in assassination and torture: at least, not out of business hours.”
Then in a reflective, somewhat sorrowful manner, he continued, “But the Roman Enterprise has two enemies that are thorns in the flesh, the bath-tub and the printing-press. Wherever they march in, she marches out. The three can’t live together.”
Of this statement there was no recognition, except a straightening up in the steamer-chair.
He continued pleasantly, “In England, Germany, and America, for instance, where these adversaries are in vogue, Catholicism quits. As the devil shrinks from the sign of the Cross, so does the Holy Enterprise gather up its bloody skirts and decamp.”
“Perhaps you forget that in the United States alone there are more than seven million Catholics.”
45“But they are not victims of the bath-tub habit.”
“That is not true! There are thousands of exceptions!”
He laughed–an amiable, jolly, yet triumphant laugh–as he retorted, “You admit the truth of it when you call them exceptions.”