small number of confessors. On many missions, confined strictly
to one parish, there have been from four thousand to eight
thousand communions; and, of course, that number of confessions
to be heard within eleven days. At a recent mission of the
Redemptorists, in New York, there were eleven thousand
communions; and at one given a year or two ago, by the Jesuits,
twenty thousand. Ordinarily, the number of confessors has been
inadequate to the work. The people have thronged the chapel where
confessions were heard, from four o'clock in the morning until
night, often waiting an entire day, or even several days, before
they could get near a priest.
{125}
At five in the morning, each of us would see two long rows--one
of men and one of women--seated on benches, flanking his
confessional. At one o'clock he would leave the same unbroken
lines, to find them again at three, and to leave them in the
evening still undiminished. At the end of the mission there would
be still the same crowd waiting about the confessionals, and left
unheard, because the missionaries were unable to continue their
work any longer. More than one-half these people would be persons
who had not been at confession for five, ten, or twenty years,
and of these a great number had seldom been at church, and still
more rarely heard a sermon. Hundreds upon hundreds of adults, of
all ages, have received the sacraments for the first time upon
these missions, many of whom had to be taught the doctrines of
the Trinity and the Incarnation, with the other elementary
articles of the Creed. I have several times, at the close of a
mission, seen a row of grown-up boys seated before my
confessional, of that class who roam the streets, loiter about
the docks, and sleep out at night, unable to read, and scarcely
able to tell who made them, much less to answer the question, Who
is Jesus Christ? They had come to be instructed and prepared for
the sacraments, swept in by the tide which was moving the waters
all around them. Of course, they needed weeks of instruction and
of moral preparation, to rescue them from the abyss of ignorance
and vice in which they were submerged, and make them capable of
living like rational beings and Christians. With some of them, a
beginning may be made, and the germ of good planted in their
souls. But many have to be left as they come, because there is no
provision which can be made for their instruction. In a word, the
nets are so full of a multitude of fishes that they break, and
there are not workmen enough to drag them ashore. The work is too
overwhelming for the number and strength of those who are engaged
in it. In this respect, some missions which have been given in
the British provinces, have been the most complete and
satisfactory of any.
{126}
In St. Patrick's Church, Quebec, the vast size of the building
enabled all who desired to do so to find room. Nineteen
confessors were on duty, and others were appointed to instruct
converts or ignorant adult Catholics. All who wished to go to
confession were easily heard, without long waiting, or the
accumulation of a great crowd of wearied and eager penitents
pressing around the confessionals. It was the same in St. John's,
where the Archbishop of Halifax and a large body of clergymen
were hearing confessions constantly, although, even with this
powerful aid, the missionaries broke down under the labor of
preaching every day to six thousand or eight thousand persons in
the great Cathedral Church, which had just been opened for
service. In these places, however, the number of the people,
though great, had a limit which could be reached, and the
requisite number of priests were easily at the command of the
bishop. In the United States, however, the work is out of all
proportion to the number of priests who are either specially
devoted to missions or who can be called in to aid these in their
labors. The missionaries are too few to do the work alone, and
the parochial clergy are too much engaged in their own duties to
be able to give much of their time to additional works of
charity. If it were possible to give missions simultaneously in
all the churches of New York City, and if they could contain all
the people, it would be easy to collect one hundred thousand
Catholics together every night to hear the Word of God, and to
bring from one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand
to communion within fifteen days. In proportion to the
population, the same results would be produced everywhere in the
United States. It would require the labor of one hundred
missionaries, during eight years, to give missions thoroughly to
our entire Catholic population. At their commencement, however,
and for some years after, there were but six or eight, and there
are now, probably, not more than twenty priests continually
employed in this work.
{127}
The necessity for it is, nevertheless, quite as urgent as it ever
has been, and the benefit to be derived from it inconceivable.
There are the vast masses of people gathered in our great centers
of population, exposed to a thousand demoralizing influences, and
most inadequately supplied with the ordinary means of grace. All
that has been done for them hitherto, is but just sufficient to
develop the immense need there is for doing more, and the great
blessing that attends every effort to do it. Of course, the main
reliance of the Church is, and always must be, upon the bishops
and parochial clergy, and I have not had the slightest intention,
in any thing I have said, to exaggerate the importance of the
special work of missionaries. The episcopate and priesthood were
established by Jesus Christ Himself, and are absolutely essential
to the very existence of the Church. Religious congregations are
of ecclesiastical institution, and are only auxiliary to the
pastoral office. The multiplication of churches and of priests
engaged in parochial duties is the most pressing need, and in no
other way can the spiritual wants of the people be adequately
provided for. It will be long, however, before the bishops will
be able, even by the most strenuous exertions, to make the number
of churches and clergymen keep pace with the increase of the
population. Meanwhile, this lack of the ordinary means of grace
cannot be supplied except by missions; and even where these means
are amply provided, the subsidiary and extraordinary labors of
societies of priests devoted to special apostolic works are
necessary, in order to give their full efficacy to the
ministrations of the ordinary pastors.
Besides our great towns, and their dense mass of Catholic
population, there is another extensive field of missionary work,
which has of late years been successfully cultivated, and which
invites still further cultivation with a promise of a rich
harvest.
{128}
I refer to the numerous new parishes found in the smaller cities
and country towns and villages. Here a new phase of Catholic life
and growth has commenced. The population is becoming settled and
permanent. Catholics are making their way upward, acquiring real
and personal property, blending with the body of their
fellow-citizens, educating their children, and to a certain
extent themselves belong to the second generation of Catholic
emigrants from Europe, having been born and married in this
country. In many instances, one pastor has two or more of these
parishes to take care of. His time and thoughts are taken up with
church-building and a multitude of other necessary duties. The
country around is sprinkled over with Catholics, who have no
resident priest among them. There is a vast amount of work to be
done in instructing, confirming in the faith, bringing under
religious and moral influence, and establishing in solid piety
and morality, this interesting and hopeful class of Catholics.
Nowhere have the missions been so complete and satisfactory as in
parishes of this kind. The whole body of the people living in the
place where the church is, can attend the sermons and receive the
sacraments. Besides these, those living several miles away flock
to the church as regularly as if they lived in the same street;
and even from a great distance, numbers, who are usually deprived
of the religious advantages of the Church, perhaps even have
grown up without making their first communion, seize the
opportunity with eagerness to come to the mission and remain for
a few days, until they can be prepared to receive the sacraments
of life. In Massachusetts alone, where congregations of this kind
abound, the number of communions given in the Paulist Missions of
the last five years, without counting those given in Boston,
amounts to twenty-five thousand five hundred and thirty, on
seventeen distinct missions, giving an average of one thousand
three hundred and twenty-five to each congregation. These figures
are a correct index to the numbers of the Catholic population in
country towns throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York,
Pennsylvania, and other portions of the Northern States.
{129}
The missions hitherto given have been intended immediately for
the benefit of the Catholic people. Their incidental influence
upon the Protestant community ought not, however, to be
overlooked. Usually, our Catholic churches are so crowded by the
faithful, that it is at least unpleasant, if not almost
impossible for others to attend our sermons, especially on
occasions of great interest. Notwithstanding this obstacle,
thousands of Protestants have come at different times to hear the
mission sermons, and there have usually been several converts on
each large mission, sometimes as many as twenty, and on one
mission, that of Quebec, fifty. Hundreds have been received into
the Church, in this way, from all classes in society, among whom
were two clergymen holding respectable positions in the Episcopal
Church, which they gave up at a great worldly sacrifice. Besides
actual conversions, a great effect has been produced in removing
the prejudices and gaining the good-will of the community at
large. The secular papers have almost unanimously spoken
favorably of the missions. In many instances, the gentlemen and
ladies of the vicinity have sent the choicest flowers of their
gardens and hot-houses, to decorate the altar and baptismal font.
Not only laymen, but clergymen have often manifested a wish to
show kind and courteous attentions to the missionaries. Very
seldom has any thing unpleasant occurred, or any annoyance been
experienced--much less, indeed, than is encountered by
missionaries in some other parts of the world from nominal
Catholics. Employers have frequently lent their servants and
work-people the means of conveyance to the church, or exempted
them from a portion of their duties. It is impossible not to see
how rapidly and generally the prejudice against the Catholic
religion and the priesthood is melting away in this country. And
this seems to warrant the hope that the time may soon come, when
the faith may be preached to our separated brethren by means of
missions especially intended for them, with rich results.
{130}
The favorable impression already so widely produced upon those
who have heard Catholic missionaries preach, proves how much we
have to hope for in this direction. This has caused, in one
instance, which seems to demand some notice, an attempt to
obviate this effect, by representing our manner of preaching as
part of an artful plan of Rome, to deceive the minds of the
people by presenting only a portion of the Catholic doctrine
under plausible colors. After several missions had been given in
Cambridge and Boston, where many Protestants of intelligence
attended, and more would have willingly done so if there bad been
room for them, the rector of a Boston church, who was present
several times, preached and published a lecture, in which he
attempted to explain the real spirit and object of the Paulist
Congregation, by which the missions were given. The extent of the
impression made is proved by the following passage in a note to
the lecture:--
"One does not take pleasure in accumulating proofs that the
Papal superstition still retains its most deplorable features;
but as long as Protestant minds are imposed upon by the
superficial fallacy that it is parting with these features,
because its public speakers deliver admirable discourses, it
seems to be necessary. Undoubtedly, the order of Paulists, is
at present a very efficient arm of the Romish service in this
country. Men say, 'Whatever Hildebrand, and the Innocents, and
Torquemada may have done or said, _such preaching as this is
good for everybody_.'" [Footnote 5]
[Footnote 5: The R. C. Principle: a "Price Lecture," &c.
Boston. Dutton & Co. 1863 App., p. 39.]
On page 27 of the lecture, he says:
"One of the latest developments in the policy of her
propagandism is the establishment in this country, with
head-quarters in our chief city, of a new missionary order.
{131}
The Paulists are the itinerants and revivalists of that
_shrewd mother of adaptabilities_, who, in becoming all
things to all men and to all women, saw a chance in America for
reaping, not so much in the field where her own fathers, like
Marquette and Rasles, as where Whitfield and Maffit had sown."
Throughout the lecture, the aim of the author is to show that the
sound and practical preaching of the eternal truths of religion,
which he is forced himself to admire, and which was so much
admired by many others, is nothing but an illusive pretence,
which throws a deceitful halo over a system of superstitious
formalism.
I have not introduced this topic for the sake of a theological
argument, but merely in view of vindicating the reputation of F.
Baker, whose sermons at Cambridge made the principal impression
which the lecture was intended to obviate, and forestalling a
prejudice which might cast a shade over the discourses which are
published in this volume.
The author of this lecture, who has been my personal friend for
thirty years, and who wrote to me on the occasion of its
publication to express his hope that it might not interrupt our
friendship, and all the Protestants who may peruse these pages,
especially those who know me, will admit that I am both competent
to explain what Catholic doctrine is, and incapable of practising
any dissimulation on the subject. Those who knew F. Baker, or who
may learn to know him from reading this volume, will also
acknowledge that his high-toned mind was incapable of yielding to
any system of driveling superstition, and his chivalrous spirit
of descending to any system of artful deception by paltering with
words in a double sense. I ask them, therefore, not, to accept
Catholic doctrine as true on our authority, but simply to believe
that the testimony I give as to the doctrine we have embraced and
preached, and our views and intentions in giving missions, is
true; and that the doctrine, contained in the discourses of this
volume, is a veritable exposition of the true Catholic faith.
{132}
The missions were commenced and have been carried on for the
purpose of benefiting the Catholic people. The sermons and
instructions have been the same, in doctrine and practical aims,
with those which were given in Italy and other purely Catholic
countries for centuries past. The congregation of Paulists was
not established by any act of the hierarchy here, or of the
supreme authority at Rome. It was formed by F. Baker and three
other American converts, in consequence of certain unforeseen
circumstances, and without any previous deliberate plan, with a
simple approbation from an archbishop, and a mere recognition of
the validity of that approbation on the part of Rome. Not a word
of instruction or direction as to the manner of preaching, or the
end to be aimed at in our labors, has ever been given by
authority, but the movement has been the spontaneous act of the
few individuals who began it. It is our desire, as it must be
that of every Catholic priest, to bring as many persons as
possible to the Catholic faith and into the bosom of the Catholic
Church. We intend, therefore, to make use of all the means and
opportunities in our power to present the faith and the Church to
our non-Catholic countrymen, and to promote as much as possible
the conversion of the American people. The Catholic Church has
the mission to convert the whole world, and intends to fulfil it;
and any Catholic priest who does not endeavor to do his share of
the work, is recreant to the high obligations of his office. We
intend to do our part, however, in promoting this great end, not
by artifice or dissimulation, not by secret intrigues or plots,
by fraud or violence, by undermining or attacking the civil and
religious liberty enjoyed by all our citizens in common, but by
argument and persuasion, by exhibiting the Church in her beauty,
by prayer and good example, and by the grace of God: We have no
reserves in regard either to our doctrine or our intentions, no
esoteric and exoteric teaching. We present the Church and the
faith as they always have been, in all times and places, one,
universal, and immutable, in all their essential parts.
{133}
What the Church and her doctrine are is ascertainable by all who
will take pains to inform themselves, and it would be impossible
for us to conceal it if we were so disposed. All that we have to
fear on this head is ignorance of the real truth concerning our
principles, and the misrepresentation of them by those whose
knowledge of them is superficial. The author of this lecture is
one of this latter class, and has hastily and without due
examination put forth his own impressions of our doctrines and
practices, with which he is so completely unacquainted as not
even to perceive that there is any thing in them which requires
any careful study or thought.
He says, p. 28: "I have heard several of these mission sermons
preached. Most of them would undoubtedly be a _surprise_,
and an agreeable one, to Protestant ears. There was a sermon on
'future punishment,' without one allusion to Purgatory." The
sermon was on _Hell_, not on the whole subject of Future
Punishment. We follow the laws of logic and rhetoric in our
sermons, and confine ourselves strictly to the topic in hand;
excluding all irrelevant matter. Any one who is surprised at a
sermon like this, shows that he is entirely ignorant of the
published sermons of our great preachers. One who supposes that
the place of punishment for those Catholics who have sinned
grievously, and have not truly repented before death, is
Purgatory, is entirely ignorant of Catholic theology. "There was
a sermon on 'Mortal Sins,' with scarcely a reference to
absolution." For the same reason given above, that the preacher
stuck to his subject, and the instructions on the Sacrament of
Penance were given in the morning. "There was another, on the
'Close of Life,' which, from beginning to end, went to prove, in
language that must have scorched every conscience not seared that
listened to it--_contrary to all the common Protestant
impressions of Romish instruction_--that there is no efficacy
whatever in any or all of the Seven Sacraments _to save a
wicked Roman Catholic from perdition._"
{134}
Indeed! Then these common impressions are all incorrect. The
proposition which excites so much surprise is nothing but the
commonest truism, familiar to every child that has learned the
catechism. To admit, however, that the lecturer found himself to
have been always mistaken, and Protestants generally to have been
under the same mistake concerning Catholic teaching, would have
been fatal. He has no such intention. There is couched, under the
language of praise which he gives to the sermon, a concealed
accusation that the doctrine of the sermons does not really mean
what it seems, and that the old Protestant prejudice against
"Romish instruction" is, after all, correct. This concealed arrow
is launched in the next paragraph: "_Supposing the fundamental
falsehood, as a whole, to stand unchallenged_, hardly any
addresses can be conceived more admirably effective to a
practical and useful end in the lives of the people." That is to
say, there is a fundamental falsehood which destroys their
admirable effectiveness to a practical and useful end. The
lecturer is making out a case against us, and preparing an
indictment which shall destroy the good impression we have made
on Protestant hearers. He prepares the way by ridiculing the
ceremonies of Catholic worship.
"But at just that point not only all praise, but all sympathy
stops short. To say nothing of the dreary array of public
pantomime and incantation, sprinkling and fumigation, pasteboard
sanctities and materialistic adoration, which followed, and which
give one a sense of momentary mortification at being a spectator
at such a mixed piece of impiety and absurdity," &c.
The point at which the lecturer is aiming here clearly comes in
view. All that is spiritual in our sermons, and that seems to
inculcate a real and solid piety and virtue, is mere talk, or
like the one genuine watch which the mock auctioneer passes
around with his pinchbeck counterfeits, to deceive his dupes the
better.
{135}
After a show of pure, spiritual doctrine, to furnish "a surprise,
and an agreeable one, to Protestant ears," the poor Catholics are
imposed upon with a set of outward shows and a routine of
superstitious observances, which they are taught to believe will
act upon them by a kind of magic charm, and secure them from
receiving any damage to their souls and their future prospects
from their sins.
The religious services which the reverend lecturer witnessed on
the occasion referred to, consisted of the psalm _Miserere_,
chanted by the choir, the hymn _Tantum Ergo_, and the
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. What is designated by the
terms "pantomime and incantation" I am at a loss to conjecture.
The "fumigation" was the burning of incense, which was also had
at the High Mass recently celebrated in Trinity Chapel by F.
Agapius. I think, also, that I have read in the Old Testament
something about censers and incense having been prescribed by the
Almighty to be used in the "pantomimes and incantations" of the
Jewish ritual. "Pasteboard sanctities" puzzled me for a long
time. I suppose it refers to the pictures blessed at one of the
morning instructions, which the lecturer has confounded with the
evening sermon.
"There were yet, beyond all that, as one pondered, appalling
absences from the teaching, and more fearful elements included."
These strong epithets prepare us now to await the final and
telling blow. First, the "appalling absences" are specified. "Can
that be the true preaching of 'the Word' where the language of
that Word so seldom enters in?" The reader is requested to look
over a few of the sermons in this volume, and count the
scriptural texts. "Could that be the true preaching of 'Christ,
and Him crucified,' where any mention of the simple gospel story
was almost systematically shut out?" A mere _ad captandum_
objection. If the lecturer had heard the Creed explained
throughout, he would have heard the mystery of redemption
explained in its proper place. The reader is again referred to
the sermons of this volume for a more complete answer to this
aspersion.
{136}
Now Come the "more fearful elements." These are the merit of good
works, the scapular, indulgences, transubstantiation, auricular
confession, purgatory, and devotion to the Blessed Virgin and
Saints. The gist of the whole is contained in the following
sentence:--
"Every system must be judged by its weaknesses and its errors,
not merely by its better traits. They say in mechanics that the
strength of a complicated piece of machinery is equal only to the
strength of its weakest part. This is as true in a scheme of
justification as in dynamics. _Offer human nature, at its own
option, various ways of securing salvation_, and not more
certainly will water seek the lowest spot than men will settle
down to the inferior methods of escaping the pains of perdition."
What is the point of this observation? Evidently this: That we
propose one way of salvation, by a truly holy life; and another
way, in which, without the trouble of leading a holy life, one
may save himself by a few outward observances, a mere confession
of the lips, without contrition or amendment, reciting
indulgenced prayers, wearing the scapular, &c. Consequently, only
a few, who are of the nobler sort, will take the route of virtue
and spiritual religion, while the mass will go on indulging
themselves in all the sins to which they are inclined, and
compound for them on the easiest terms they can make. Now,
supposing this to be true, it recoils with all its force upon the
one who uttered it. The whole doctrine of his lecture denies all
merit to holiness and virtue, and ascribes justification solely
to the personal holiness and virtue of Christ, which is
appropriated by a naked act of faith. This is the Lutheran
doctrine, and there cannot be a lower spot for men to settle down
to, or an easier way for dispensing oneself from every thing that
is painful and self-denying in the religion of the Cross. The
author himself accuses (on p. 21 et seq.) nine-tenths of the New
England Protestants of having slid down to such a low point that
they are as bad as Romanists:--
{137}
"The first question put by about nine New Englanders out of ten,
when they are urged to any particular religious duty, is whether
it is necessary to their salvation, i.e. whether they shall be
paid for doing it. It is essentially a Romish question.
* * *
Point to their censorious tongues, their narrow judgments, their
contempt of the Lord's poor, their unlovely temper, their social
and partisan prejudices, their mean dealings in business, their
physical and religious selfishness: they give you to understand
_that sometime since they got into the ark--why should they be
further converted?_" Why should they, indeed, according to
Luther and Calvin? Once obtain the imputation of the merits of
Christ, by faith, and you have a full absolution for both the
past, the present, and the future, without confession or penance;
you have an inalienable right to the fruits of redemption without
sacrifice or sacrament; you have a perfect righteousness and a
right to an eternal reward without good works or merits; you have
a plenary indulgence without even repeating "a prayer of six
lines," or attending a mission; and you will go to heaven, not on
the Saturday, but on the instant after your decease, without a
scapular. Even the few little things that we exact from our poor,
simple followers, as a price for heaven, are dispensed with.
"_Not more surely will water seek the lowest spot_, than men
will settle down to the inferior methods of escaping the pains of
perdition." Let the Catholic priest tell them that they must
profess the faith and enter the communion of the one true Church,
at whatever sacrifice of pride, position, property, or friends,
and they will find some inferior method of saving their souls and
keeping this world--if they can. Let him tell them that they must
confess every mortal sin, and they will settle down to some
inferior method of obtaining pardon--if they can find one.
{138}
Let him tell them that they must do penance, fast, abstain, give
alms, mortify their passions, keep the commandments, work out
their salvation, _and, if they would be perfect, sell all and
follow Christ_, like him whose doctrine the author attempts to
criticise, and they will settle down to some inferior method--if
they can persuade themselves that it is at their option to do so.