Faith, Love & Money

At Harvard summer school last year, Sophomore Leland Cummings Jr. met Mary Louise Werner. Her father was a wealthy industrialist from Milwaukee, his father a comfortably fixed chemical engineer from Wyncote, Pa. When it came to talk of marriage, there was trouble--but not the kind a faithful moviegoer would expect. Industrialist Arnold J. Werner liked his daughter's college-boy suitor; the boy's family was the one to object. The reason, they said, was that Lutheran Werner was leading Leland away from his Roman Catholic faith.

In Circuit Court, Milwaukee County, the Catholic Cummingses said it with a $500,000 lawsuit against the Lutheran Werners. Werner and daughter Mary Louise, they said, had lured Leland away from his faith and his family; they had enticed him to Milwaukee in Werner's private plane, given him a $75-a-month allowance, promised him a $25,000-a-year job in the family ironworks. "Werner's influence," the suit contends, "destroyed the natural affection the son had for his parents" and deprived them of "their only hopes for solace, affection, companionship and comfort during their declining years."

Leland and Mary Louise, both 21 and planning to be married this week in a Lutheran church, called the suit a "malicious" attempt to block their marriage. He had thought about giving up his faith before he met Mary Louise, said Leland.

Added Mary Louise: "If he had been a devout practicing Catholic when I met him, I would never have let him leave his church. I majored in religion at Vassar, and I believe all religions are good."

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