Innocent Girlhood at the Confessional Box.
Blight girlhood and you destroy the usefulness of womankind. Tarnish
the sacredness of girlhood and you scar the purity of womanhood.
Deface the beautiful countenance of chastity, which is found in the
bosom of girlhood, and you not only mar the happiness of girlhood,
but you deface and obliterate the families of the future, for without
that priceless treasure, virtue, the eternal principles of conjugal
love becomes a barren waste without a single oasis.
Oh, if I could but call about me in one vast throng the girls of this
land, and all other lands, who have had the first thought of
carnality planted in their bosom by the scheming Priestcraft, I would
have a throng of tear-faced mortals that would rend the heart of
stone and stigmatize the cunning of Catholicism with a stigma blacker
than the lowering clouds of despair.
When you force childhood to believe in the infallibility of the
priestcraft you educate the mind of that child to implicitly believe
in the officials of the Catholic Church, and when you gain the
implicit confidence you have established a belief that cannot be
easily eradicated, as this belief has become a part of that child,
and as it grows older, this erroneous belief grows in proportion to
the body, and by the time this child has arrived at the age of
maturity, she is as densely ignorant of the cunning of this doctrine
as she was when she first learned to repeat the Catechism with a
childish lisp.
We desire to preface this chapter with common-sense arguments, so
that the reader may thoroughly understand how completely the female
element of the Catholic Church is under the control of the priesthood
of this institution.
Priests are, as a rule, men of more than average intellect, and, as
they have no other calling nor no other avocation in life than to
make good impressions upon their members, they of course become
cunning in their art, especially with the female members of their
congregations, and more especially with their young and handsome
members.
Imagine the power that a Catholic priest has over a young girl in her
teens--yea, over any female member of their congregation, when you
take into consideration the fact that from infancy these girls and
women have been taught that it is almost an absolute impossibility
for a priest to commit a sin.
When you dwell upon the doctrines taught these girls and women it
will not be a matter of surprise that the priestcraft wields such a
powerful influence over them, as any one with this doctrine funneled
into them from childhood is open and ready to believe what the
priestcraft may tell them, and the individual is not to blame for
believing this, as they have been taught it by their parents from
infancy, and the officials of the Catholic Church have taught it;
then why should we be surprised at the dense ignorance upon the part
of these girls and women?
Priests always try to impress their members with the idea that they
are infallible and that it is impossible for them to sin. They do
this for many reasons. First, in order that they may have their
congregations in humble submission to any of the demands of the
church, and, secondly, it enables them to accomplish any devilish
deed they may wish to accomplish under the guise of priestly
sanctity.
It is no pleasant task to dwell upon this most distasteful and most
repulsive of all of the fallacies of Rome and the abominable
rottenness of the priesthood, but without giving a vivid description
of the cunning of the priestcraft in regard to the "Confessional"
would be treating the subject in a manner that would not do justice
to the abominations of her hideous doctrines; and to fail to touch
upon this subject would leave the greatest and most deadly weapon in
the hands of this band of devils.
The Confessional Box is an emblem of paganism, as innumerable
trustworthy authorities prove that Roman Catholicism has pre-empted
this custom as well as many other of her practices from the dark ages
of paganism.
Oricular confession was practiced centuries ago by the ancient
Babylonians, Egyptians, Mexicans, Peruvians and the Japanese--in
fact, it is not only an ancient custom, but one which belongs to the
darkest of the ancient ages, which should have been relegated to the
haunts of hell centuries ago.
A priest once said: "Nobody should be surprised when we priests,
bishops and popes sink into the bottomless abyss of immorality, for
the celibacy of the priestcraft is only a cudgel in the hands of
Catholic officials to drive us to the haunts of immorality."
A priest once said "that the Confessional is one of the most damnable
institutions that was ever permitted to exist, as these Confessionals
are only traps to lead the piously and morally-inclined priest to the
plains of immorality, for a priest is naught but man, and when he is
forced to compel women penitents to pour into his ears their every
thought, feeling, desire, emotion and act, it kindles the fires of
unholy thought upon the altars of his better ambitions and before he
knows it he has committed adultery and not only ruined his own soul,
but has been the implement in the hands of the devil to destroy the
virtue of innocent womanhood."
He further states "that not only do the thoughts, feelings, emotions,
etc., have to be related, in all of their details, to the priest, and
perhaps a bad priest, but all circumstances leading to and the
results growing out of these thoughts, must be given in detail."
The immorally inclined and licentious priest is not satisfied with
the female penitent enumerating only her mortal sins, but he insists
and forces the penitent to give circumstances, minutely describing
her thoughts and feelings of every-day life, which leads both the
penitent and the confessor to the lowlands of immorality.
The priestcraft is instructed by the Romish Church not to allow the
penitent to conceal anything from them, and the priestcraft is given
instructions to probe the penitent to the heart's core.
In this chapter we propose to give you a little insight to the
character of one or two priests that I have personally known, and if
I dared and if it was possible to print the nasty history of a number
of priests that I have been acquainted with, I could fill this volume
with their depravity; but should I do so this book would not be
permitted to circulate through the mails of the United States. But I
will endeavor to clothe my recital of a few instances of priestly
immorality in language of chastity, but will make my recital plain
enough that any one who can read may understand.
Rev. Chas. Kuhlman, who was pastor of a Catholic Church in
Edwardsville, Ill., was suspicioned of having become too intimate
with a sister of his own school, and this sister soon left the
sisterhood, and it was rumored that she went to St. Louis to evade
the birth of a child.
This very same priest was caught in the act of adultery with a
married woman in his office in East St. Louis. He was at that time,
besides being pastor, the editor and publisher of a very important
Catholic paper called "_The Catholic Progress_." This immorality of
Priest Kuhlman became public property and formed such a nasty mess
that the Catholic bishop had to take some notice of it and the case
was tried before the Bishop of Alton, Ill., and Kuhlman was
excommunicated for life.
This married woman gave testimony that was very damaging to the Rev.
Kuhlman and gave her evidence before a notary public, which cannot be
disputed, and it matters not how hard the Catholic Church may try to
villify these statements, they cannot overcome the truthfulness of
the same, as there are too many living witnesses at this time who
know that what I am relating is absolutely true.
Rev. Kuhlman was not satisfied with the verdict of the bishop of
Alton, Ill., and appealed his case to Rome, and the bishop was indeed
glad to get rid of this dirty case and did not appear in Rome to
prosecute the case, and the Rev. Kuhlman won the case in Rome by
default, and this same Rev. Kuhlman became a Catholic priest in good
standing again and was permitted to officiate as a minister of the
gospel, with all of this abominable slime of immorality clinging to
his priestly garments.
Now, bear in mind that Rev. Kuhlman, after having all of this
immorality laid at his door, was permitted by the Pope of Rome to go
right ahead with his priestly duties, but a short time after he won
his case at Rome there was an affidavit sworn out against Kuhlman by
a man in East St. Louis, averring that he had been again caught in
the act of adultery with another woman. This time the case was
reported to Bishop Janssen, of Belleville, Ill., and also to Cardinal
Martinelli, of Washington, D.C., but there was no attention paid to
it, and this Rev. Kuhlman was permitted to go right ahead in his
pastoral duties and is at the present time the pastor of a church in
East St. Louis and is also the spiritual director of a convent, which
contains many sisters and many pupils.
Now, if what I have related is false, Rev. Chas. Kuhlman has redress
at law; and if I have libeled him he can make me suffer for the
crime, and he will not have to spend any money to locate my
whereabouts, as he is aware of my location at the present time and
can find me at any time that he desires to bring suit against me for
blackmail or any other crime that he sees fit to instigate against
me.
It is no pleasant task to relate these very nauseating things, but it
is my aim and intention to so plainly and powerfully set forth the
deceit, cunning and dastardly deeds of Catholicism that I may be able
to open the eyes of not only the Protestant world but of Catholicism
at large, for there are thousands of the followers of the Pope who
are very weak in their faith, and if I can by the righteousness of my
cause, convince them that they are following the blind leaders of
paganism, I am absolutely certain that the Protestant ranks will have
an in-gathering of the hosts of Catholicism that will cause the
angels in heaven to shout hallelujahs of thanksgiving.
Do not understand me to say, or to intimate, that there are no
sincere priests, as there are; but their sincerity is founded upon
superstitious beliefs and erroneous doctrines, consequently their
sincerity and devoutness only helps to fasten the abominations of
Catholicism more completely upon humanity, as those who are candidly
sincere are held up to the Protestant world as models of Catholicism,
when, in fact, they are but exceptions to the general herd of
Catholic officials.
To more plainly illustrate to the reader how fascinating and powerful
the teachings of Catholicism is upon the minds of man, I would
illustrate this by the power that parents have over a child. You
teach a child some doctrine, it matters not whether it is right or
wrong, and you will impress it with the truthfulness of this doctrine
in its childhood, and let it understand as it grows into manhood and
womanhood that this doctrine is absolutely true, and hedge it about
with superstitions confirming this doctrine, and the hosts of hell
can hardly convince it that its early teachings were wrong; so you
can easily see what a powerful influence Catholicism has over the
minds of its followers, as you must bear in mind that Catholicism
takes up the child when it is only a few days old and continually
hedges it about with emblems of ignorance and superstition and never
allows it to gaze above the horizon of this mass of erroneous
doctrine; therefore the child is not to blame for its implicit
confidence, but the cunning of those who practice this deception upon
this child is to blame, and the doctrine of Catholicism is what I am
assailing in this volume, for if I can be instrumental in opening the
eyes of those who have arrived at the years of accountability, I feel
sure that I can be instrumental in having those so reached declare to
their offspring that their first lessons have been altogether
erroneous, and if the Catholic parents will begin to teach their
children before they leave the parental roof that their first lessons
were erroneous it will not be so hard for the Protestant world to
finish the job and turn these hosts of darkness into the highways of
intellectuality.
The reason that we have so many disgraceful happenings and immoral
incidents in the lives of the priestcraft is because of the absolute
confidence that their followers have in them, as it is a well-known
fact that the female world has a greater confidence in humanity than
the male population, so it is an easy matter for any sane man or
woman to understand why an immoral priest, and one who has no regard
for honor, has such an easy task in accomplishing the ruin of those
whom he seeks to destroy.
The paradise of the priestcraft is inky darkness, as they prefer
darkness to light, and by their actions, their every-day lives take
on the hue of midnight. If we can read God Almighty's hand-writing in
a legible manner, we believe that any intelligent man or woman can
discern in the countenance of a majority of the priestcraft a look
which is almost equal to a condemnation of their actions, as a large
majority are lacking of that manly frankness of countenance which is
found in the countenances of godly men.
In conclusion of this chapter, I beg to state that the Confessional
Box of the Romish Church is one of the darkest pages of the dark
history of Catholicism, and if this hideous chapter was removed from
Romanism, three-fourths of her diabolical deeds would be eradicated;
but when you remove the "Confessional" you remove the charm for that
part of the priestcraft which exists upon the carrion of the human
family, and whenever you remove the "Confessional," the celibacy of
the church will be abandoned and the priestcraft will be allowed to
marry, as Protestant ministers are permitted to do, and when this is
done, instead of having a Roman Catholic Church, we will have a
Protestant denomination in its stead, and my prayer is that a just
God will hasten the day when this "_virtue trap_" will be relegated
to the dark recesses of paganism, from whence it came.
[Illustration: "AMERICA'S RUIN."
UNCLE SAM--"I am afraid these people will be the ruination
of this country unless I stop them from coming over."]