MY "ADVERTISEMENT" IN THE CATHOLIC SENTINEL.
During the spring and early summer of 1916, an election campaign was on,
and the issue was very apparent. The patriotic citizens were determined
to elect American citizens to office who would uphold the American
principles.
I was talking several times each week, and evidently something was
hurting, for the _Catholic Sentinel_, published in Portland, which is
the mouthpiece of Archbishop Christie, printed a fine "advertisement"
for me in its issue of June 8, 1916. There has been many comments on
some of my statements regarding the activities of the "Knights of
Columbus," and this article from their own paper will substantiate what
I have said:
A. P. A.'S FEATURE "ESCAPED" NUN
Former Sister of Charity Appears on Anti-Catholic Platform.
BIGOTRY RUNS WILD
Protestant Churches Are Placed at the Disposal of Miss
Schoffen.
Portland is a hotbed of religious bigotry. While the rest of
the world is storming Heaven for peace, the "patriots" here are
doing everything in their power to stir up religious
dissension. To this end they are using Miss Elizabeth Schoffen,
a former nun.
This unfortunate woman was for 31 years a member of the Sisters
of Charity of Providence. For 17 years she was a nursing sister
in St. Vincent's Hospital here. She left the order four years
ago as a protest against having been transferred from Portland
to Vancouver against her will. The order paid to her or her
representatives a considerable sum of money in recognition of
her services.
Some months back she went on the lecture platform, billing
herself as an ex-nun. The public did not flock to hear her in
any great numbers. Her audiences consisted for the most part of
that undesirable element in this community who would revive
Know-Nothingism and to whom that which is vulgar and salacious
carries an appeal.
Miss Schoffen, more widely known as "Sister Lucretia," is a
plain featured woman about 55. For the last few weeks she has
been delivering afternoon lectures "for women only." Several
Protestant ministers have extended to her the hospitality of
their churches. Among the churches in which she has spoken are
the First Methodist Church, the Woodlawn Christian Church, the
Sunnyside Methodist Church, the Brentwood Methodist Church and
the Sellwood Christian Church. She was billed to speak at the
White Temple (Baptist) last Tuesday afternoon to women only,
but the strong disapproval of the trustees of that church
resulted in the cancellation of her engagement.
Miss Schoffen is a studious disseminator of malicious
inuendoes, suggestions and hints. She is careful to say nothing
that would render her liable to prosecution for criminal libel
or defamation of character. She has much to say on the divided
allegiances of Catholics, on the "military activity" of the
Knights of Columbus and on the deep, dark Roman dungeons. She
is no orator. Her discourse is full of inconsistencies and is
couched at times in the language of the gutter. She adduces no
evidence in support of her insinuations and declines to answer
questions during or after the "lecture." The stage is well set.
The proceedings generally open with a prayer! This is often
followed by the singing of "America," in which the audience
joins. Her manager then drapes the American flag over Miss
Schoffen's shoulder, saying as he does so: "This is to show
that during her lecture Miss Schoffen is under the protection
of the Stars and Stripes!" These words never fail to elicit
tremendous applause.
... Her lectures have become so obnoxious that the Knights of
Columbus have decided to take action and to that end have
appointed the following committee: J. W. Kelly, W. J.
Prendergast, Roger B. Sinnot, James Clarkson, J. N. Casey, D.
J. Malarkey, M. G. Munley, R. J. O'Neil, Joseph Jacobberger, H.
V. Stahl, John F. Daly.
I do not care to take space here to comment on this article at length;
there is a great deal of truth in it and then there is a great deal that
is not true. I will say that the time spoken of when the White Temple
turned me down, there were about three thousand women that congregated
to hear my message, and I delivered it to them, but not in the White
Temple; I hired an automobile and we went to the Plaza, where I talked
from the machine. The above article speaks of the "strong disapproval of
the trustees of the church." It took them quite a long time to give out
the announcement, for the lecture had been advertised for two weeks. Any
American can guess why this building was closed at the eleventh hour.
Of course, I am no orator. How could I be after spending my life in the
convents of the Roman Catholic system? And, if I talked in the language
of the gutter, where do you think I learned it? Surely it must have been
learned in the parochial school, the confessional or the convent.
Four of the eleven Knights of Columbus appointed to take action against
me were prominent lawyers of Portland, and no doubt they worked overtime
trying to hatch up some scheme to get me before the bar of justice. If
they for one moment thought that I could not prove what I was saying
about the system I had lived so many years, why did they not call on me
to produce my proof?
I have in my possession a letter from the wife of one of these noble
"knights," which, in part, reads as follows: "I was not surprised when I
heard that you had left the order. The last time I was up there I asked
for you and they told me you had been sent to Canada. I felt then it was
the beginning of the end. What led up to it all I do not know, but I
felt I must tell you that so far as we are concerned, our sympathies are
with you. I know such a thing could not have come to pass without your
having experienced much suffering and heartache. And I want to tell you
we are with you heart and soul. Of course, you know our attitude toward
them. We have felt for a long time they are lacking in charity. We could
not reconcile ourselves to their attitude towards the nurses. Mr. ----
and Sister ---- had a passage at arms the last time he was up there. The
old order of things was good, but there seems to have crept in an
element which has the money-making. If you have time, I should like to
hear from you and something about the work you are doing. I know one
thing, that it is effective. We have never forgotten the service you
rendered Mr. ----, and I have always felt that you more than any other
contributed to his recovery."
[Illustration: "_A Gift from God_"--_Five Years' Growth._ (Photographed
Jan. 29, 1917)]
Yes, I did contribute to a great extent to this gentleman's recovery
when his two physicians and the special nurse had abandoned all hope.
And from this letter it was apparent that he was pleased to hear that I
had left the order. Then, why such a radical change in the mind of such
a highly educated man? Had some of the "holy fathers" been to see him
and demanded, and as a good "knight" he had to serve? Or, was his name
placed on the committee for show? The latter is more probable.
I wish my readers to read the article very carefully and thoughtfully
and then draw your own conclusions. The fact remains that I was
lecturing and the effects were hurting somebody. These "somebodies" were
busy in nearly every town where I would be billed to speak, endeavoring,
with their threats of boycott and with their committees appointed to
wait on the city officials, to close halls, and to even keep me from
entering the city. What was evidently hurting them was the fact that I
was telling the truth to their own adherents, and in several of the
small cities where I spoke, some of them renounced the Roman Catholic
faith; others would take their children or some relative out of a Roman
Catholic orphanage or parochial school. "An institution that cannot
stand the light, needs to have the light turned on it," and that is just
what I was trying to do.
It makes no particular difference whether I was drawing large crowds or
not (but I was drawing immense crowds), whether I was using language of
the gutter or not, whether I produced any evidence to prove my
contentions or not, whether the churches turned me down or not, I was
doing the work I had started out to do, viz., tell the public of the
treatment I had received while I was in the Roman Catholic convent and
the treatment I had received since I left the convent at the instigation
of the Roman Catholic system, and, thank God, I found the people eager
to listen to the truth. It seems that the truth is the very worst thing
that can be said about the Roman Catholic system.