A Future History of the United States

The meeting between Archbishop Rand and the fourteen priests continued as Mark departed to prepare the Letters of Authority. While it appeared near certain the problems had originated in St. Anthony’s church, it was not clear how the problems had spread throughout the city so rapidly.

The priest of the Cathedral of St. Francis remarked that for the past few months he had felt a growing unease among the members of his church. Once he mentioned this, it seemed to open the flood gates. Priest after priest mentioned things that had occurred recently that had seemed minor at the time, but now took on greater importance.

One of them stated he had been unable to secure sufficient “volunteers” for a work day to spruce up the living quarters at his church. Another said that whenever he ventured out, some of his church members seemed to go out of their way to avoid meeting with him. Yet another said the members of his church seemed to be doing a lot of whispering among themselves before the services began.

After listening to these, and many other similar comments for some time, Archbishop Rand held up his hand to silence them. “Once a real problem develops we tend to see problems under every rock and in every word. Let’s concentrate on the present situation.

“We know beyond any doubt that some of the people have become disobedient. That was apparent when two of you fled from a pub in fear for your safety. Something like that has not happened within memory. Others, while less openly disobedient, refused to cooperate when they were questioned concerning the events at St. Anthony’s church.

“With both of these events, they could claim that they were being questioned without proper authority. As you leave here you will have authority to do whatever is necessary to get the answers we need.

“Anyone who refuses to cooperate must be detained and immediately brought before me. I will make certain they receive appropriate punishment. We must stop this before it spreads beyond the city.

“I have decided to impose restrictions on movement within the city immediately. We already have the city divided into sections based on the area each of your churches serve. Once we have published notice of this restriction, anyone found outside of their home or work area will be detained and brought before me. No one will be permitted to leave the city without my specific approval until this situation has been brought under control.

“We will publish this by placing notices on the doors of the churches, pubs and other public buildings. I have already told you that I am giving you authority to require the assistance of as many men as needed to locate those present at St. Anthony’s when this mysterious bishop spoke. That same authority will apply to making them assist in posting notice of this restriction of movement.

“You will also recruit men with bicycles to carry messages to the priests of every church within one hundred kilometers. This message will specify that they are to detain any bishop that arrives without a letter from me verifying their permission to travel within my territory.

“I see Mark is back with your Letters of Authority. Take them and get busy. This takes priority over everything else you may have had planned.” As he departed the room he turned to Mark, “Come with me.”

Mark followed as the Archbishop led him to a room he had only entered once before. On one wall was a large chart of the alphabet with a series of dots and dashes under each letter. On the previous occasion the Archbishop had told him that the dots and dashes represented a code that allowed him to send messages to the other Archbishops. The device making this possible was a small box connected to a wire that came out of the floor.

Indicating the chart, the Archbishop said, “I will compose a message to the other Archbishops. You will refer to this chart and enter the appropriate symbols under each letter. Once this is done, we will use this device to send it to the other Archbishops.” With this he sat down and began to write. He knew the message must be brief, yet it must convey the importance of the problem.

It took him a long time to prepare his message, but finally he handed a piece of paper to Mark. He had written:

“Major problem SL rogue bishop stirred up people fear near rebellion request Dallas send civil troops to aid AB Rand”

He allowed Mark a minute to read the message, “Once you have all the letters coded use this,” indicating the small box, “to send it. This key,” again pointing, “will make a sound each time you press it. Press and release it rapidly for a ‘dot’ but hold it down a little longer for a ‘dash.’ Pause for a few seconds after you send each letter. When you are ready to start, hold the key down for about a minute. Then turn it loose and wait. That will make a loud sound in the other Archbishops quarters alerting them that a message is coming in.

“You should get eleven long buzzes in response. Don’t start sending the letters until you hear all eleven. This will indicate that someone is at the other end ready to take down the dots and dashes and translate them back to letters. Let me know when you have finished.”

In his tenure as Archbishop of St. Louis, Rand had never before used the telegraph to send a message. Only once had he received a message. That message informed him of the death of another Archbishop and named the replacement. His use of this dreaded device was an indication of his extreme concern for the safety of his district.

After the Archbishop left the room, the priests looked at each other in confusion. He had told them he wanted a notice of restriction of movement posted on all churches and public buildings, but he had not given them a copy of any such notice. Should they try to word one themselves? Should one of them locate the Archbishop and ask him how to word the notice? Either course had its dangers.

Further delay was also problematic. It was already mid-afternoon and they all had long bicycle rides ahead of them. They were concerned about their safety if they should be out after dark. The mood of the people had definitely turned anti-church. Finally, someone said, “Let’s all go together to find him and ask what he wants us to do now.”

Just as they started for the door, the Archbishop re-entered the room. Looking at them he said, “I’m glad you are all still here. I must admit, with everything on my mind I forgot about the message I want you to post. Mark is busy at the moment. His current task will take him some time, so it will probably be quite late by the time he has copies of the notice for you.

“I will talk to the cook and see if he can prepare at least a small meal for you. After dinner Mark will show you the guest quarters where you may spend the night. I hate to lose the time, but I would hate even more to lose any of you to some lawless gang out there on the streets tonight. Please come with me.”

He led them to a large room with a number of comfortable looking chairs. “Please relax here while I make arrangements with the cook.”

After he left one of the priests said in a very soft voice, “I do believe he is almost human.”

After that comment it seemed they all started to speak at once. Through the cacophony of sound another raised his voice, “Let me have your attention! We need some order to this conversation! He has given us an almost impossible task. Does anyone have any suggestions of how we should start?”

Somebody said, “Probably the first thing we should do is get some people to post the notices on the public buildings. We can take care of putting them on the church doors ourselves.”

One of the priests who had been chased out of the pub spoke up, “With the luck we had trying to get that man to expose a heretic, that may not be easy. What do we do if people refuse?”

One by one the others spoke up.

“Archbishop Rand said we were to bring him anyone who won’t help.”

“The way things are out there, seem to me we might soon have the whole city in here. There must have been close to a hundred people in that pub, and they were all against us.”

“From what the Archbishop’s servant said, no one in the area of St. Anthony’s seems inclined to help.”

“But he didn’t have the Letter of Authority.”

“A lot of good a piece of paper is going to be. You’d better hold it tight or it’ll be torn out of your hand and ripped up.”

One of their members had been sitting quietly, taking everything in. Finally, during a lull in the comments he said, “All this negative talking isn’t getting us anywhere. We need to come up with some kind of plan.”

After a long silence Carl, the priest from St. Joseph’s church, which was on the very edge of town, spoke up. “I may be putting myself at risk by even suggesting this. In fact, if someone other than a priest were to make the comment I am about to make, he would be called a heretic!”

The shocked look on the faces of the other priests almost made him stop. Gathering his courage he forged ahead, “For years the Church has relied on FEAR to control people. Fear of going to hell. Fear of being accused of being a heretic. Fear of the disapproval from the priest. Fear of this. Fear of that. Fear, Fear, Fear!

“Jesus said we should love one another. Is it just possible that if we show the people we love them, they might want to help us?”

Most of the others edged away from him as if they thought he had some deadly disease. After a long silence somebody said, “He might just have something there. But how can we do that?”

Following that comment everyone was silent. All seemed lost in their own thoughts. It was clear Carl’s comments had struck a nerve. They all claimed to have entered the ministry with the intent to serve God through service to others. Even for those who truly felt called by God to sever others this idealism had somehow been left behind as their duties to the Church had slowly taken control of their thoughts, as well as their actions.

As Carl looked around the room, he could see others glancing his way. Some had a look of contempt on their faces; others seemed torn by some internal conflict. When the Archbishop returned, Carl feared for a moment that one of them would say something that would result in his immediate condemnation. Thankfully, all were silent as the Archbishop announced, “Dinner is served. Please follow me.”

Conversation during dinner seemed to be about everything except what was going on in the city. At one point it even descended into a discussion of the weather! Carl kept expecting, and dreading, the possibility of someone mentioning his outburst while they had been waiting. He was relieved when no one did. The pressure he felt made dinnertime seem to last forever. Finally, everyone had finished their dessert and the Archbishop announced, “Mark is still working on his project. He should have your documents in the morning.”

With this he arose from his place at the head of the table, “I must leave you now. I trust you will have a restful night. I will see you in the morning.”

As he departed, a servant they had not seen before entered the room, “If you will all follow me, I will show you to your rooms.” They were each given a private room and left to their private thoughts. Knowing the turmoil in the streets, and the anger they had seen expressed by some of the people, some were wondering if they would survive the day ahead.