SACRAMENT OF PENANCE--MASS AND COMMUNION--EXTREME
UNCTION--INDULGENCES--ANNUAL RETREAT.
I have previously mentioned that I was compelled by rule to go to
confession every eight days. I wish to comment on this Sacrament of
Penance, as confession is called, and some of the other practices and
ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion.
Of all the practices that holds adherents to the Roman Catholic system,
the telling of the many faults to the so-called mediator between God and
man--the priest--stands paramount. Why not? Roman Catholics are raised
to think and believe that by confessing their sins to the man
representative of Christ in the confessional and receiving absolution,
God has also forgiven them. God's Word says in 1st Timothy, second
chapter, fifth verse, "For there is one God, and one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus." Not any representative of Christ,
but Christ Himself.
The confessional box is a trap for the convent, and after the poor girls
are once there they are shackled more than ever in the faith of the
religion by the priest in the confessional. The girls abandon
themselves, body, heart and soul, to the instructions and directions of
this ungentlemanly man--for no true gentleman would ever ask the dirty,
filthy, indecent questions in public or private that these men ask many
of the girls and women in this so-called holy private place, the
confessional--this man, whom we, as sisters and Roman Catholics look to
as the mediator between us and God, often in the form of a drunken man.
Yes, I have known not a few, and have waited on them in my work at the
hospital for a great many years, and I cannot call to my mind one of
these "holy men of God" who did not partake of the best liquors
obtainable, and I have had to protect more than one from the people
there so there would be no scandal.
Then to these liquor-soaked priests I was forced to turn and kneel to
confess my sins, to lay bare the innermost thoughts of my soul and most
sensitive feelings of the heart and then submit to the most humiliating,
shameful questions--so shameful and degrading that I am not permitted to
print them or to repeat them.
The priest is the sister's only confident--she must talk to him on
subjects that she would not tell her mother. He is to her what Christ
would be if He would come from Heaven and sit there with her. He is her
justifier, as she is absolutely in his wily meshes and victimized in his
hellish power--for nothing less than hell on earth is the confessional
to sisters. It is the destroyer of womanly purity, womanly
refinement--destroying the higher instincts and ennobling qualities. A
sister does not talk in the confessional of what is best and noblest in
her, but is racking her brain all week preparing and gathering
everything that is mean, low, degrading, contemptible--digging up secret
things to tell and talk about to the priest. The thought of having to
stoop and grovel so low and worm-like is sickening, not only soul
sickening, but often agonizing physically to the extreme, in the act of
ejecting and getting rid of a vast amount of much imaginary wrong and
scruples. It keeps the mind poisoned and enslaved in the powers of
darkness, busily endeavoring to become sanctified on the mistaken road
of pagan degradation, dispair and hell.
A form of beginning and finishing confession. This is precisely the same
form I used all my life in the church of Rome, but I will copy from
Deharbe's Catechism, translated from the German by a Father of the
Society of Jesus, of the Province of Missouri, published by Benziger
Brothers, Printers to the Holy Apostolic See, and with the Imprimatur of
John Card. McCloskey, then Archbishop of New York. Page 110, question
55:
"How do you begin Confession?
"Having knelt down, I make the sign of the cross and say: 'Bless me,
Father, for I have sinned. I confess to Almighty God, and to you,
Father, in His stead, that since my last confession, which was ... I
have committed the following sins.' (Here I confess my sins.)"
Question 56. "How do you conclude your confession?
"I conclude by saying, 'For these and all my other (P. III) sins which I
cannot at present call to mind, and also for the sins of my past life,
especially for ... I am heartily sorry. I most humbly ask pardon of God,
and penance and absolution of you, my Ghostly Father.'"
Question 57. "What must you do then?
"I must listen with attention to the advice which my Confessor may think
proper to give me, and to the Penance he enjoins; and whilst he gives
me absolution I must excite my heart to true sorrow."
Now, if the priest is good and kind enough to say the magic words, "I
absolve the, etc." and absolve the penitent, he is just as pure and free
from sin, according to the Roman Catholic belief, as if he had submitted
to baptism, and he can go and sin again, so long as he will return to
the priest for absolution.
Jeremiah J. Crowley, in his book, 'Romanism--A Menace to the Nation,'
tells of the "moral theology" which the priests have to study to become
priests, and which I think will interest my readers. Mr. Crowley was a
priest in the church of Rome for twenty years.
Page 74. "Moral Theology of the Roman Catholic Church, printed in Latin,
a dead language, containing instructions for auricular confession, is so
viciously obscene that it could not be transmitted through the mails
were it printed in a living language; neither would priests and bishops
dare to propound said obscene matter in the form of questions to female
penitents if their fathers, husbands and brothers were cognizant of the
satanic evils lurking therein; in fact, they would cause the suppression
of auricular confession by penal enactment.
* * * Confessors search the secrets of the home, and so are worshiped
there, and feared for what they know.
(Page 76.) "If it is the purpose of state or government to prevent crime
and eradicate its causes, the whole of this diabolical system called the
Confessional, which is known to worm out the secrets of families, the
weaknesses of public men, and thereby get them under control--to either
silence them or make them active agents in the Roman Catholic
cause--above all, the debauching of maids and matrons by means of vile
interrogatories prescribed by Liguori, and sanctioned by the
Church--should be abrogated by a national law in every civilized country
on the globe."
While I was a novice, the Master of Novices in his religious
instructions to the novices, told us that the worst Catholic stood a
better chance of saving his soul than the best Protestant, because the
Catholic, no matter how many or grievous the sins he might commit, could
confess them to the priest and be forgiven; while the Protestant, though
he might be a very good man, had no priest to confess his sins to, and
cannot be forgiven. Therefore, he dies in sin, as every man is sinful,
and is lost, for the Scripture says, "Nothing defiled can enter Heaven."
Three things are necessary for absolution--contrition, confession and
penance. Of course, the priest pronounces the words of absolution before
the penance is performed, but the remission of the sins confessed is not
complete until the penance is performed. Every sin must be confessed to
the priest, the most secret and grievous, or there can be no remission,
according to the Roman Catholic teaching.
With these teachings and this papal practice of confession you can
readily understand how this one sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church,
more than any other binds the people to it. Let me say as Mr. Crowley
said to the American brothers, husbands and fathers who have sisters,
wives and daughters being entrapped in this terror of all terrors, the
confessional--get educated on this subject. And let me say that when you
do, if there is any manhood in you, the confessional in the Roman
Catholic Church will cease.
"Mass is the perpetual sacrifice of the New Law, in which Christ offers
Himself in an unbloody manner, as He once offered Himself in a bloody
manner on the Cross." (Deharbe's Catechism, page 98.)
To hear mass, we are witnessing in a sort of "mummyfied" manner, a show
at the altar, which is lighted with candles, decorated with flowers,
costly images of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saints, holy pictures,
relics of the saints, gold or silver ciboriums and ostensoriums, and
many other articles of altar and sanctuary use too many to enumerate.
During this or other ceremonies, the priest is dressed in a long
oriental robe covered with a kimona-style surplice--which is often
nearly all costly lace--chasuble, cope, maniple, stole, mitre, and other
gaudy-colored, gold-fringed, embroidered pieces of apparel.
The mass must be recited in Latin. The priest at the altar with his back
to the congregation, recites Latin prayers for from one-half to
three-quarters of an hour. During these prayers the act of
"transubstantiation" takes place. That is, the changing of the wine and
bread into the actual body, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. That is
the actual belief of the Roman Catholic adherents, as in the creed of
Pope Pius V, it says, "I profess, likewise, that in the Mass there is
offered to God a true, proper and propitiatary sacrifice for the living
and the dead; and that in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist there
is truly, really, and substantially the Body and Blood, together with
the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is made a
conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, and of the
whole substance of the wine into the Blood; which conversion the
Catholic Church calleth Transubstantiation. I also confess that under
either kind alone Christ is received whole and entire, and a true
sacrament." (Chamber's Ency., Collier 1890, under Roman Catholic
Church.)
To receive communion, the sisters in the convents where I have been,
marched to the altar by twos, knelt and received the "body of Christ,"
but never the "blood." No one is allowed any of the wine, or "blood,"
except the priest or "substitute Christ."
If, during this ceremony, a crumb of the "body of Christ" should happen
to drop on the communion cloth, that spot must be marked, and after the
ceremony is completed, the priest sprinkles some "holy water" on the
spot, says a few Latin words, makes a few signs with his "holy hands,"
then it is purified, and whatever is used in this purification is
burned, or sometimes washed. The Corporal, which is a piece of linen
used for handling the "body and blood of Christ" in the mass, must
always be washed or rinsed by the priest before it goes to the laundry,
because the sisters who do the work in the laundries have not "holy
hands," and the priest's fingers have been consecrated and are therefore
"holy."
In speaking on transubstantiation, William Cathcart, in his book, "The
Papal System," says (pages 170-171), "The priests scorn the idea that
there could be any figure in the declaration: 'This is my body,' but
when Paul says: 'For as often as you shall eat and _drink the chalice_,'
they must grant that it is not the _chalice_ but its _contents_ that are
to be drunk. If it is not a figurative expression, the priests of Rome
should swallow the cup as well as the contents. The words, 'I am the
vine, I am the door,' are literal if the expression is not figurative,
'This is my body.' No community would suffer more than the Catholic
Church from a non-figurative interpretation of every scripture word. In
the Catholic New Testament, Matt. xvi. 22, 23, it is said: 'And Peter
taking him began to rebuke him, saying: 'Lord, be it far from thee, this
shall not be unto thee'; who turning said to Peter: 'GO BEHIND ME,
SATAN, THOU ART A SCANDAL UNTO ME, because thou savourest not the things
that are of God, but the things that are of men.' If the words, 'This is
my body,' must be taken literally, we would mildly insist that Christ's
address to Peter shall be taken literally too when He said to him: 'Go
behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me.' According to that
interpretation, Peter is the chief of devils, and the Church of Rome,
built on Simon, is founded on Beelzebub himself. A literal
interpretation of the words, 'This is my body,' leads to sacred
cannibalism; and of the saying in Matt. xvi. 22, 23, makes Peter the
devil, and Lucifer the foundation of the Papal Church. A figurative view
of both passages is the true one."
"Extreme Unction is a Sacrament, in which by the annointing with holy
oil and by the prayers of the priest, the sick receive the grace of God,
for the good of their souls, and often also of their bodies." (Deharbe's
Catechism, Page 114.)
Extreme Unction is commonly known as the Last Sacrament of the Roman
Catholic Church. It is administered only when there is danger of death.
I often had to prepare the dying for this sacrament. The articles used
were a crucifix, holy water, lighted candles, a piece of bread, and five
"wads" of absorbing cotton. The priest would come, unwrap his silk bag
containing the holy oil (chrism), dip the cotton in the holy oil and
apply to the parts of the body where the five senses are located--the
forehead, to cleanse the mind of the sins of thought; the eyes, for the
sins committed by the sight; the mouth, for the sins of speech; the
ears, for the sins of hearing; and the hands and feet, for the sins of
feeling. The last members of the poor suffering, I often had a difficult
time to get handy for the priest to apply his chrism, particularily in
paralysis or accident cases. During all the ceremony the priest is
reciting Latin prayers.
The piece of bread is for the priest to cleanse his fingers after the
ceremony. It must be destroyed, together with the cotton used, by fire
so that no particle of the holy oil will be desecrated.
This sacrament is supposed to help the soul of the person receiving it
to heaven, but it does not keep him from the torments of purgatory.
Before a person is entitled or can accept this sacrament he must be
baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. The sisters in the hospital must
do all in their power to convert Protestants to the Roman Catholic faith
before death. I was instructed that I was not a secular nurse, but a
religious and Sister of Charity, and as such it was my duty to convert
all Protestants and non-Catholics possible.
I remember one very interesting case of this kind that happened soon
after I went to St. Vincent's Hospital. My officer, Sister Mary
Bonsecours, requested me to go with her to a room occupied by a
Methodist lady who was dying, and she would show me how to make
converts. In addressing the lady, among other things, she said that the
Roman Catholic Church was the only true church. All who were not
baptized in it would not be saved and would surely never see God. The
lady simply remarked that she was satisfied with her religion. About
the third time I accompanied the sister to the lady's room, she was
passing into the last agony, and the sister leaned over her and shouted
into her ear that her soul was going to hell forever for not being a
Roman Catholic. That is the manner in which many of the sisters endeavor
to obtain the patient's consent for baptism into the Roman Catholic
Church, and if they are yet rational, they are entitled to the last
sacrament, Extreme Unction.
A very convenient practice for the Roman Catholic adherents is that of
gaining Indulgences.
"An Indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment due to our
sins, which the church grants outside of the Sacrament of Penance."
(Deharbe's Catechism, Page 112.)
"Can Indulgences be applied also to the Souls in Purgatory?"
"Yes, all those which the Pope has declared to be applicable to them."
(Deharbe's Catechism, Page 113.)
"Temporal punishment due to our sins" is that which we have to suffer
here on earth or in purgatory. This includes the penance imposed upon
the penitent by the priest after confession. If the penitent is truly
contrite for his crime, the priest has the privilege to relax the
penance and grant indulgence, that is, he cannot be granted indulgence
unless he is in a "state of grace," which is after having confessed and
having been absolved, and fulfilled the requirements of the absolution.
One of the means of gaining indulgences for the sisters was the saying
of short prayers, for each one said, so many days indulgence being
gained. For instance, for saying:
"My Jesus, mercy! Mary, help!" 200 days' indulgence.
"Sweet Heart of Jesus, be my love." 300 days' indulgence.
"Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation." 300 days' indulgence.
If we should have some friend or relative dead whom we thought was in
purgatory, we could offer these prayers, with many others, for them and
in that manner shorten their days of torment in that middle region, as
well as shorten our own sufferings there.
Once each year every sister is required to spend eight days in what is
called "annual retreat." That is, eight days' religious exercises and
spiritual instructions by a priest--generally a Jesuit priest in the
order I was a member of--conferences, the performance of penances, etc.
The priest gives five spiritual instructions each day of this retreat,
each one lasting about an hour. We must keep absolute silence during
these eight days, except to speak to the Mother Provincial on our
shortcomings and to the priest in confession. At this confession the
poor sister is supposed to tell all the wrongs and sins committed during
the past year, and hours are spent in preparing and waiting, kneeling
outside the confessional box, crouching in fear and trembling, hoping
and praying that she may escape some of the indignities of this terrible
exercise.
At these "retreats" the sisters were allowed to take notes of the
spiritual instructions, and I will copy from some of the notes I took.
These instructions were given by "Father" McGuckin at the Mother House
at Vancouver, Washington, on the subject of "Poverty."
"It is not according to the spirit of poverty if we think we must
require a remedy for every little ache or suffering or pain. We must
bear those things with Christian fortitude without a remedy or
alleviation. We must not make a superfluous use of things, even of
things we are allowed to have for our use of necessity. If we have
things that we are attached to, we should take them to the superior,
even if she should make us take them back, then we have made the
sacrifice, and God accepts the will for the deed.
"Why deprive ourselves of that merit? There is nothing small in regard
to poverty, even to a piece of thread. We cannot be too scrupulous in
detaching ourselves from the world and ourselves.
"The things of the community do not belong to us and we have no right to
anything at all nor to dispose of anything--everything belongs to God
and should be used as such and taken care of just the same as the sacred
vestments. We have no right to make any agreements with any person in
the world, where we, personally, would have any responsibility, for we
have nothing and it would be shifting the responsibility upon the
community.
"We cannot accept a present for ourselves without permission, but we can
and ought, whenever no condition is expressed, with the intention to
give it to the superior to dispose of for the congregation. We must
never refuse an offer when it is for the congregation. It is our duty to
accept and let that person do his good work. Every congregation is
generally or always in need of means to perform good works. Let
everybody contribute to good.
"We must do our work with anxiety or solicitude, doing our best. Cast
your care on the Lord and He will take care of you."
In this chapter I have endeavored to explain some of the many practices
and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic system, as I have found that there
are very few Protestants who understand the import of these in the Roman
Catholic religion.
The Roman Catholic definition for "ceremonies of the Church," is
"Certain significant signs and actions, ordained by the Church for the
celebration of the Divine Service." (Deharbe's Catechism, Page 127.) So
you see that these various ceremonies must be observed by the Roman
Catholics because the church says so, not that Christ instituted any
such practices while He was here. And, whenever the _Church_ wishes, she
can add a few more to her already long list of ceremonies, and the Roman
Catholic must believe in it and practice it, or he cannot continue to be
Roman Catholic.