Bishops

Besides announcing the names of 20 Cardinals-to-be (see above), Pope Pius XI last week filled two vacant U. S. bishoprics. To shepherd all the Catholics of Georgia as Bishop of Savannah, he appointed Most Rev. Gerald P. O'Hara, 40, who has been auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia since 1929. Appointed to be Bishop of Sault Sainte Marie and Marquette was Auxiliary Bishop Joseph C. Plagens, 55, of Detroit, onetime pastor of Sweetest Heart of Mary Church.

In contrast to 20,000,000 U. S. Catholics who have 122 bishops, 2,000,000 U. S. Episcopalians have 126 shepherds. Lately editorialized the high-church Living Church: "Do we need so many bishops?" The low-church Chronicle: "Are our bishops getting soft?" When the House of Bishops held its annual meeting last month in Houston, Tex. it did nothing about reducing its size. Last week brought a prospective increase in its numbers.

P: Elected Bishop Coadjutor of Rochester, N. Y. was Rev. Bartelle H. Reinheimer, executive secretary of the Field Department of the Church's National Council.

P: Elected Bishop of Vermont's 6,000 Episcopal communicants was Rev. Dr. Vedder Van Dyck, vice Rev. Dr. Joseph Wilson Sutton who was offered the post (TIME, Aug. 12) but declined. Chunky, pink-faced Dr. Van Dyck, 46, has been rector of St. Paul's in Burlington since 1929.

P: In Eau Claire, Wis. was regularized the Episcopal status of Rev. Dr. John William Charles Toch Torok, 45, once a Hungarian Uniat Catholic priest. Imprisoned as a political suspect during Hungary's revolution, Dr. Torok escaped to the U. S. In 1921 he became a Hungarian Orthodox archdeacon in Fond du Lac, Wis., then an Episcopal priest. In 1924 he was consecrated Bishop in Vienna, by a Czechoslovak and a Serbian Orthodox Bishop. The Episcopalians of Wisconsin elected Dr. Torok suffragan Bishop in 1934.

The House of Bishops has neither confirmed nor voided Bishop Torok's peculiar apostolicity. But having made a thorough investigation with the House's permission, Eau Claire's Bishop Frank Wilson last week formally received Bishop Torok in his Cathedral during a simple communion service.

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