Boy Bishop

Febrile, high-powered, insouciant is Reno, Nevada, divorce capital of the U.S. With rare abandon it orders its life, welcoming all comers: moody socialites, glittering cinemactresses, minor celebrities who will bring front-page space as did Cartoonist Peter Arno and Author Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. when they quarreled boyishly (TIME, June 29). Loving to be unique, Reno was pleased last week when there arrived in town Dr. Thomas Kiley Gorman, 38, first Roman Catholic Bishop of the new diocese of Reno, Nevada (TIME, Aug. 3). For Bishop Gorman is no run-of-the-mill prelate such as another State might get: he is a golfer, joke-teller, smoker of big black cigars, and the youngest Catholic Bishop in the U.S.

Consecrated five weeks ago in Los Angeles, Bishop Gorman arrived last week in Reno bringing with him his own publicity man, Fred V. Williams. Day after his arrival he was formally installed in old brick St. Thomas Aquinas Church, which is now elevated to the rank of Cathedral (congregation: 1,100 families). From its porch he could look across the street to El Cortez Hotel, where lives many a divorce-seeker. Five blocks away is "Gamblers' Row"--Douglas Alley and Center St. Eight blocks away is the Reno Court House, where Monday "wash-days" are held.

After his installation Bishop Gorman banqueted with priests and assisting bishops. (In his diocese of some 10,000 souls are 33 churches, 14 priests, one parochial school, one Catholic hospital.) At the State Building next evening he was given a public banquet. Said he: "It is already becoming embarrassing to be pointed out ' as Reno's 'boy bishop,' Parents have always warned their children that they should be seen but not heard." He busied himself meeting and talking with his welcomers. Among them were Nevada's Governor Fredrick Bennett Balzar, California's Governor James ("Sunny Jim") Rolph Jr., Reno's Mayor Edward Ewing Roberts, Justice Edward Ducker of the Nevada Supreme Court, onetime District Attorney William Boyle, Divorce Lawyer Patrick McHarran.

Less reluctant to discuss moral questions in his new home than he had been in California, Bishop Gorman commented, after a tour of the town: "Before we can save the world, we must save ourselves. No crusades are intended."

To the United Press he issued a signed article: "Naturally my position on divorce is that of the Catholic Church. Marriage is a permanent relation of lifelong duration, and separation for grave cause may be permitted, but without freedom to remarry. As a question of principle, the problem of divorce in Nevada is no different for the Bishop of Reno than for any 1 other Catholic Bishop. Nevada isn't unique. . . . What does make Nevada the divorce mecca is the absolute freedom for immediate remarriage. . . . Only one more step remains to reach a state of promiscuity prevailing in the barnyard or jungle. . . .

"Gambling, in a strict sense of the word --I do not mean the laying of small wagers for fun--is a vice which can wreck men and families just as quickly as other vices. Communities and families where the gambling fever obtains cannot long continue sound either economically or socially."

Optimistically the golfing Bishop later added: "I'm seriously considering building golf courses as a substitute for gambling."

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