In 500... (or less)

The Bishop's Blessing

The bishop leaned back as he read yet another request.

"What about this one?" He didn't bother to look at his secretary, Father Schlesser, sitting at his desk. "Wants to marry his cousin?"

"I beg your pardon," Schlesser said. He was far too engrossed in his own to answer his superior's question.

"This application," the old bishop said. "What do you know of it?"

Schlesser scanned the paper quickly, trying to remember the case.

"Ah yes," the young priest said. "He is a customs official with children from his previous marriage. The application for dispensation is to allow him to marry his cousin. She has been helping him with the children."

"Is that all she has been helping him with?" the bishop chuckled. Schlesser's face grew flush, he knew what the bishop was implying.

"Quite right," he said. "The rumor is she is expecting her own child."

"Am I to condone such a sin by approving this? He is much older than she is and the relationship is scandalous, to say the least. I am not at all compelled to give it the blessing of the Church."

"I would tend to agree," Schlesser started, summoning some boldness to back what he was about to say. "But the child, the one not yet born. Should the child suffer for the indiscretions of his parents? You will be condemning him to a life of illegitimacy."

"Things are not as they once were," the bishop said. "Illegitimacy is hardly a crime or shameful these days. It always comes down to the money."

"Perhaps," Schlesser said. "But pray you consider the family, of the other children. Would either of us have been afforded the mercies of God without the tender influence of having a mother who raised and cared for us?"

The bishop sighed heavily but weighed his young secretary's words against his own annoyance.

"I pray that God spares me too long of a life, to live in a society with such loose morals," the bishop growled. "But your point regarding the children is well taken. One cannot underestimate the impact a loving and caring mother has on a child."

Schlesser smiled at the bishop but did not expect the glare which was returned.

"I suppose we shall grant the exception," the bishop grumbled. "But I do not revel in it. It is given out of necessity and my own personal concern for the welfare of the children, both those already in the home and those to come. I do not doubt this man would continue this relationship regardless of my blessing."

"Yes," Schlesser said, robbed of his moment of triumph in the debate. 

The bishop gestured to him as if to give a dictation in response to the request.

"Send word to Herr Hitler, I shall approve of his marriage to Klara Polzl. I can only pray that his children lead a more upstanding life than their father."