THE CONFESSIONAL IS THE MODERN SODOM.
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If any one wants to hear an eloquent oration, let him go when the Roman
Catholic priest is preaching on the divine institution of auricular
confession. There is no subject, perhaps, on which the priests display so
much zeal and earnestness, and of which they speak so often. For this
institution is really the corner-stone of their stupendous power; it is the
secret of their almost irresistible influence. Let the people to-day open
their eyes to the truth, and understand that auricular confession is one of
the most stupendous impostures which Satan has invented to corrupt and
enslave the world; let the people desert the confessional-box to-day, and
tomorrow Romanism will fall into the dust. The priests understand this very
well; hence their constant efforts to deceive the people on that question.
To attain their object, they have recourse to the most egregious
falsehoods; the Scriptures are misrepresented; the holy Fathers are brought
to say the very contrary of what they have ever thought or written; the
most extraordinary miracles and stories are invented. But two of the
arguments to which they have more often recourse are the great and
perpetual miracles which God makes to keep the purity of the confessional
undefiled, and its secrets marvellously sealed. They make the people
believe that the vow of perpetual chastity changes their nature, turns them
into angels, and puts them above the common frailties of the fallen
children of Adam.
Bravely and with a brazen face, when they are interrogated on that subject,
they say that they have special graces to remain pure and undefiled in the
midst of the greatest dangers; that the Virgin Mary, to whom they are
consecrated, is their powerful advocate to obtain from her Son that
superhuman virtue of chastity; that what would be a cause of sure perdition
to common men is without peril and danger for a true son of Mary; and, with
amazing stupidity, the people consent to be duped, blinded, and deceived by
those fooleries.
But here let the world hear the truth as it is, from one who knows
perfectly everything inside and outside the walls of that Modern Babylon;
though many, I know, will disbelieve me and say, "We hope you are mistaken.
It is impossible that the priests of Rome should turn out to be such
impostors. They may be mistaken; they may believe and repeat things which
are not true, but they are honest; they cannot be such impudent deceivers."
Yes! though I know that many will hardly believe me, I must say the truth.
Those very men who, when speaking to the people in such glowing terms of
the marvellous way they are kept pure in the midst of the dangers which
surround them, honestly blush, and often weep, when they speak to each
other (when they are sure that nobody except priests hears them). They
deplore their moral degradation with the utmost sincerity and honesty. They
ask from God and men pardon for their unspeakable depravity.
I have here in my hands, and under my eyes, one of their most remarkable
secret books, written, or at least approved, by one of their greatest and
best bishops and cardinals, the Cardinal De Bonald, Archbishop of Lyons.
The book is written for the use of the priests alone. Its title is in
French, "Examen de Conscience des Prêtres." At page 34 we read:--
"Have I left certain persons to make the declarations of their sins in such
a way that the imagination, once taken and impressed by pictures and
representations, could be dragged into a long course of temptations and
grievous sins? The priests do not pay sufficient attention to the continual
temptations caused by the hearing of confessions. The soul is gradually
enfeebled in such a way that, at the end, the virtue of chastity is for
ever lost."
Here is the address of a priest to other priests when he suspects that
nobody but his co-sinner brethren hear him. Here is the honest language of
truth.
In the presence of God, those priests acknowledge that they have not a
sufficient fear of those _constant_ (what a word--what an
acknowledgment--constant!) temptations, and they honestly confess that
those temptations come from the hearing of the confessions of so many
scandalous sins. Here the priests honestly acknowledge that those constant
temptations, at the end, destroy _for ever_ in them the holy virtue of
purity![3]
Ah! would to God that all the honest girls and women whom the devil entraps
into the snares of auricular confession could hear the cries of distress of
those poor priests whom they have tempted--_for ever destroyed!_ Would to
God that they could see the torrents of tears shed by so many priests
because, from the hearing of confessions, they had _for ever_ lost the
virtue of purity! They would understand that the confessional is a snare, a
pit of perdition, a Sodom for the priest; and they would be struck with
horror and shame at the idea of the _continual_, shameful, dishonest,
degrading temptations by which their confessor is tormented day and
night--they would blush on account of the shameful sins which their
confessors have committed--they would weep over the irreparable loss of
their purity--they would promise before God and men that the
confessional-box should never see them any more--they would prefer to be
burned alive, if any sentiment of honesty and charity remained in them,
rather than consent to be a cause of _constant_ temptation and damnable sin
to that man.
Would that respectable lady go any more to confess to that man if, after
her confession, she could hear him lamenting the continual, shameful
temptations which assail him day and night, and the damning sins which he
has committed on account of what she has confessed to him? No--a thousand
times no!
Would that honest father allow his beloved daughter to go any more to that
man to confess if he could hear his cries of distress, and see his tears
flowing because the hearing of those confessions is the source of constant,
shameful temptations and degrading iniquities?
Oh! would to God that the honest Romanists all over the world--for there
are millions who, though deluded, are honest--could see what is going on in
the heart, the imagination of the poor confessor when he is, there,
surrounded by attractive women, and tempting girls, speaking to him from
morning to night on things which a man cannot hear without falling! Then
that modern but grand imposture called the Sacrament of Penance would soon
be ended.
But here, again, who will not lament the consequence of the total
perversity of our human nature? Those very same priests who, when alone in
the presence of God, speak so plainly of the constant temptations by which
they are assailed, and who so sincerely weep over the irreparable loss of
their virtue of purity, when they think that nobody hears them, will yet in
public deny with a brazen face those temptations. They will indignantly
rebuke you as a slanderer if you say anything to lead them to suppose that
you fear for their purity when they hear the confessions of girls or
married women. There is not a single one of the Roman Catholic authors who
have written on that subject for the priests, who has not deplored their
innumerable and degrading sins against purity on account of the auricular
confession; but those very men will be the first to try to prove the very
contrary when they write books for the people. I have no words to say what
was my surprise when, for the first time, I saw that this strange duplicity
seemed to be one of the fundamental stones of my Church.
It was not very long after my ordination, when a priest came to me to
confess the most deplorable things. He honestly told me that there was not
a single one of the girls or married women whom he had confessed who had
not been a secret cause of the most shameful sins in thoughts, desires, or
actions; but he wept so bitterly over his degradation, his heart seemed so
sincerely broken on account of his own iniquities, that I could not refrain
from mixing my tears with his. I wept with him, and I gave him the pardon
of all his sins, as I thought, then, I had the power and right to give it.
Two hours afterwards, that same priest, who was a good speaker, was in the
pulpit. His sermon was on "The Divinity of Auricular Confession;" and, to
prove that it was an institution coming directly from Christ, he said that
the Son of God was making a _constant_ miracle to strengthen His priests,
and prevent them from falling into sins, on account of what they might have
heard in the confessional!
The daily abominations, which are the result of auricular confession, are
so horrible and so well known by the popes, the bishops, and the priests,
that several times, public attempts have been made to diminish them by
punishing the guilty priests; but all these have failed.
One of the most remarkable of those efforts was made by Pius IV. about the
year 1500. A Bull was published by him, by which all the girls and the
married women who had been seduced into sins by their confessors were
ordered to denounce them; and a certain number of high church officers of
the Holy Inquisition were authorized to take the depositions of the fallen
penitents. The thing was at first tried at Seville, one of the principal
cities of Spain. When the edict was first published the number of women who
felt bound in conscience to go and depose against their father confessors
was so great that, though there were thirty notaries and as many
inquisitors to take the depositions, they were unable to do the work in the
appointed time. Thirty days more were given, but the inquisitors were so
overwhelmed with the numberless depositions that another period of time of
the same length was given. But this, again, was found insufficient. At the
end, it was found that the number of priests who had destroyed the purity
of their penitents was so great that it was impossible to punish them all.
The inquest was given up, and the guilty confessors remained unpunished.
Several attempts of the same nature have been tried by other popes, but
with about the same success.
But if those honest attempts, on the part of some well-meaning popes, to
punish the confessors who destroy the purity of their penitents, have
failed to touch the guilty parties, they are, in the good providence of
God, infallible witnesses to tell to the world that auricular confession is
nothing else than a snare to the confessor and his dupes. Yes, those Bulls
of the popes are an irrefragable testimony that auricular confession is the
most powerful invention of the devil to corrupt the heart, pollute the
body, and damn the soul of the priest and his female penitent!
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