An author of some note, in an article published in a Protestant journal,
while admitting that the “holy Catholic church” had been about as unholy
an institution as could well exist, claimed that Romanism had its good
points. Among them he instanced “its reverence for motherhood.” For proof
of his assertion he pointed to the homage paid to the image of Mary and
her child by the average Roman Catholic.
We admit the homage, but deny the reverence. To begin with, where is the
reverence for motherhood among the Roman Catholic priests? Why, these men
have not respect enough for woman to elevate her to the dignity and honor
of motherhood. These men are married to the church, to Christ and not to
women. Their sacred office would be lowered by taking a wife.
The holy vows of these priests are not half as holy as the marriage vow. A
priest never had half as pure a thought as is born in the heart of a
father. He never performed a rite half as consecrating as dancing a
laughing child on his knee. These holy old bachelors have done all their
religion would allow them to dishonor motherhood.
The pretence that woman as woman, as mother, as wife, as sister, or
daughter, is particularly respected by Roman Catholics is simply absurd.
To prove this we point to the homes of the Roman Catholics. We confess
that the Romish church encourages motherhood, that Roman Catholics are
urged to help increase the church membership, but we claim that nowhere is
there less reverence of woman as woman, as mother, as wife, as sister, as
daughter, than among the Roman Catholics.
Because a Catholic crosses himself before a wooden Madonna, or a
plaster-paris image of the mother of Jesus, it is no proof of his
reverence for motherhood. Not a bit. The Catholic reverences Mary as the
mother of God; he pays her homage as a divine person; worships her, not as
a mother, but as a superior being.
The man that has reverence for motherhood is the man who loves and
tenderly cares for his own mother and the mother of his children, but the
man who prostrates his mind before a carved figure of the “Virgin Mary”
and pounds his wife and kicks his daughter into the street has reverence
for nothing.
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Adam might have obeyed God, but he could not resist Eve.
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It looks easy to break off a bad habit that somebody else has got.