Religion: Popularity

In Philadelphia, 1,500 Roman Catholic parishioners in the Italian district, resentful over transfer orders for their three popular priests, Revs. Simpliciano Gatt, Aurelio Marini and Basil Fresno, held the fathers captive in the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel until police forced an entrance, surrounded the priests, got them out. When Father Gatt, assistant pastor, returned to get his clothes, parishioners recaptured him in the rectory. “We love him; we will not let him go!” they shouted. They fought the police, threw them out, locked the doors, refused admittance to a funeral party, cheered when the cortége retired to another church. They took the front doors off their hinges to prevent efforts to close the church, refused to let priests from nearby St. Paul’s hold masses, listened to an all-day entertainment by a 20-piece band, rang the church bell for seven hours, broke it.