Pope Takes a Powder

The oddest religion in the East, and the one with the most catholic pantheon, is known as Cao Dai. Founded in Saigon in the 19205, it numbers among its archangels Victor Hugo, Joan of Arc, Sun Yat-sen and Clemenceau, and boasts some 2,000,000 adherents, a private army and a pope. But Cao Dai's voluble, bright-eyed little Pope Pham Cong Tac was never able to resist meddling in secular matters. Tossing his 15,000-man army now on one side, now on the other in the delicate balance of Vietnamese politics, he succeeded only in incurring the wrath of his military Chief-of-Staff General Nguyen Thanh Phuong, who is now an avowed supporter of Premier-President Ngo Dinh Diem. "The time has come," said General Phuong one day last year, "for a good sweep of brooms down at the Holy See." The general surprised the Cao Daist "Vatican" at siesta time, disarmed the 400-man papal guard and clapped a score of corrupted princes of the church, including the pope himself, under house arrest.

The surprise action split Cao Daism wide open. Rival factions began feuding with each other in nightly sprees of shooting, kidnaping and plundering. The imprisoned pope often interrupted his daily mandolin strumming and xylophone banging to pray for the dead. Meanwhile, rivalry between the pope and his disaffected general to win the favor of the faithful went on apace. Last week General Phuong tipped the scales by collecting certified letters from 19 vestal virgins of Cao Dai complaining that the pope had raped them. He then called a congress of the Cao Dai hierarchy to consider the complaints. Three days before the congress met, Pope Tac decided to get out of town. Loading his two daughters and a bearded cardinal into a sky-blue Ford, he headed for Pnompenh, across the border in Cambodia. General Phuong was glad enough to let him go. Cambodian authorities made it clear that the unseated pope is welcome in their country only on the condition that he does not make a nuisance of himself. "I will take the opportunity of my stay here to build a temple," said Pope Tac.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.