The Priest, The Woman And The Confessional

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But those shrewd casuists know too well that by such frank confession, they
would soon lose their hold on Catholic populations, especially on women, by
whom, through confession, they rule the world. They much prefer to keep
their gripe on benighted minds, frightened consciences, and trembling
souls. No wonder, then, that they fully endorse and confirm the decisions
of the councils of Latran and Trent ordering "that all sins must be
confessed such as God knows them." No wonder that they try their best or
worst to overcome the natural repugnance of women for making such
confessions, and to conceal the terrible dangers for the priests in hearing
the same.

But God, in His infinite mercy, and for the sake of truth, has compelled,
as it were, the Church of Rome to acknowledge the moral dangers and
corrupting tendencies of auricular confession. In His eternal wisdom, he
knew that Roman Catholics would close their ears to whatever might be said
of the demoralizing influence of that institution; that they would even
reply with insult and fallacy to the words of truth kindly addressed to
them: as the Jews of old returned hatred and insult to the good Saviour who
was bringing to them the glad tidings of a free salvation. He knew that
Romish devotees, led astray by their priests, as were the poor blinded
Jews, would call the apostles of truth liars, seducers, possessed of the
devil, as Christ was constantly called a demoniac, an impostor, and finally
put to death by his false accusers.

But God, just as compassionate now as he was then for the poor benighted
and deluded souls, has wrought a real miracle to open the eyes of their
minds, and compel them, as it were, to believe us, when we say, on his
authority, that auricular confession was invented by Satan to ruin both the
priest and his female penitents, for time and eternity. For, what we would
never have dared to say of ourself to the Roman Catholics with regard to
what frequently happens between their priests and their wives and
daughters, either during or after confession, God has constrained the
Church of Rome to acknowledge herself in revealing things that would have
seemed incredible had they come simply from our mouth or our pen. In this,
as in other instances, that apostate church has unwittingly been the
mouth-piece of God for the accomplishment of his great and merciful ends.

Listen to the questions that the Church of Rome, through her theologians,
puts to every priest after he has heard the confession of your wives or
daughters:

1. "_Nonne inter audiendas confessiones quasdam proposui questiones circa
sextum decalogi praeceptum cum intentione lubidinosa?_" (Miroir du Clerge,
p. 582.)

While hearing confessions, have I not asked questions on sins against the
sixth (the seventh in the Decalogue) commandment with the intention of
satisfying my evil passions?

Such is the man, O mothers and daughters, to whom you dare to unbosom the
most secret as well as the most shameful actions. You kneel down at his
feet and whisper in his ear your most intimate thoughts and desires, and
your most polluting deeds; because your church, by dint of cunning and
sophistry, has succeeded in persuading you that there was no impropriety or
danger in doing so; that the man whom you chose for your spiritual guide
and confident could never be tempted or tainted by such foul recitals. But
that same church, through some mysterious providences, is made to
acknowledge, in her own books, her own lies. In spite of herself, she
admits that there is real danger in confession, both for the woman and for
the priest; that willingly or otherwise, and sometimes both unawares, they
lay for each other dangerous snares. The Church of Rome, as if she had an
evil conscience for allowing her priest to hold such close and secret
converse with a woman, on such delicate subjects, keeps, as it were, a
watchful eye on him while the poor misguided woman is pouring in his ear
the filthy burthen of her soul; and as soon as she is off, questions the
priest as to the purity of his motives, the honesty of his intentions in
putting the requisite questions. Have you not, she asks him immediately,
under the pretence of helping that woman in her confession, put to her
certain questions simply in order to gratify your lust, and with the object
of satisfying your evil propensities?

2. "_Nonne munus audiendi confessione suscepi, aut peregi ex prava
incontinentiae appeta?_" (Idem, p. 582.)

Have I not repaired to the confessional and heard confessions with the
intention of gratifying my evil passions?

O, ye women, who tremble like slaves at the feet of the priests, you
sometimes admire the patience and charity of those good (?) priests, who
are willing to spend so many long and tedious hours in hearing the
confession of your secret sins; and you hardly know how to express your
gratitude for so much kindness and charity. But hush! Listen to the voice
of God speaking to the conscience of the priest, through the Church of
Rome! "Have you not" she asks him, "heard the confession of women simply to
foster or gratify the groveling passions of your fallen nature and corrupt
heart?"

Please notice, it is not I, or the enemies of your religion, who put to
your priests the above questions: it is God himself who, in his pity and
compassion, compels your own church to ask such questions; that your eyes
may be opened, and that you may be rescued from all the dangerous
obscenities and the humiliating and degrading slavery of auricular
confession. It is God's will to deliver you from such bondage and
degradation. In his tender mercies, he has provided means to drag you out
of that cess-pool called confession; to break the chains which bind you to
the feet of a miserable and blasphemous sinner called confessor, who, under
the presence of being able to pardon your sins, usurps the place of your
Saviour and your God! For while you are whispering your sins in his ear,
God says to him, through his church, in tones loud enough to be heard: "In
hearing the confession of these women, are you not actuated by lust,
spurred by evil passions?"

Is this not sufficient to warn you of the danger of auricular confession?
Can you now with any sense of safety or propriety, come to that priest, for
whom your very confession may be a snare, a cause of fall or fearful
temptation? Can you with a particle of honor or modesty willingly expose
yourself to impure desires or shameful deeds? Can you, with any sort of
womanly dignity consent to entrust that man with your inmost thoughts and
desires, your most humiliating and secret actions, when you know that that
man may not have any higher object in listening to your confession than a
lustful curiosity or a sinful desire of exciting his evil passions?

3. "_Nonne ex auditis in confessiones occasionem sumpsi paenitentes
utriusque sexus ad peccandam sollicitandi?_" (Idem, p. 582)

Have I not availed myself of what I heard in confession to induce my
penitents to commit sin?

I would run a great risk of being treated with the utmost contempt, should
I dare to put to your priests such a question. You would very likely call
me a scoundrel for daring to question the honesty and purity of such holy
men. You would perhaps go as far as to contend that it is utterly
impossible for them to be guilty of such sins as are alluded to in the
above question; that never such shameful deeds have been perpetrated
through confession. And you would, maybe, emphatically deny that your
confessor has ever said or done anything that might lead you to sin or even
commit any breach of propriety or modesty. You feel perfectly safe on that
score, and see no danger to apprehend.

Let me tell you, good ladies, that you are altogether too confident and in
the most fatal delusion. Your own church, through the merciful and warning
voice of God speaking to the conscience of your own theologians, tells you
that there is a real and eminent danger where you fancy yourself in perfect
security. You may never have suspected the danger, but it is there, within
the walls of the confessional; nay, more, it is lurking in your very hearts
and that of your confessor. He may hitherto have refrained from
temptations; he may, at least, have kept within the proper limits of
outward morality or decency. But nothing warrants you that he may not be
tempted; and nothing could shield you from his attempts on your virtue
should he give way to temptation; as cases are not wanting to prove the
truth of my assertion. You are sadly mistaken, in a false and dangerous
security. You are perhaps, although unawares, on the very brink of a
precipice, where so many have fallen through their blind confidence in
their own strength or their confessor's prudence and sanctity. Your own
church is very anxious about your safety; she trembles for your innocence
and purity. In her fear, she cautions the priest to be watchful over his
wicked passions and human frailty. How dare you pretend to be stronger and
more holy? Why should you so wilfully imperil your chastity or modesty? Why
expose yourself to danger, when it could be so easily avoided? How can you
be so rash, so devoid of common prudence and modesty as to shamelessly put
yourselves in a position to tempt and be tempted, and thereby incur your
temporal and eternal perdition?

4. "_Nonne extra tribunal, vel in ipso confessionis actu, aliquia dixi aut
egi cum intentione diabolica has personas seducendi?_ (Idem, idem.)

Have I not, either during or after confession, done or said anything with a
diabolical intention of seducing my female penitents?

"What arch-enemy of our holy religion is so bold and impious as to put to
our saintly priests such an impudent and insulting question?" may ask some
of our Roman Catholic readers. It is easy to answer. This great enemy of
your religion is no less than a justly offended God, admonishing and
reproving your priests for exposing both you and themselves to dangerous
allurements and seductions. It is his voice speaking to their consciences,
and warning them of the danger and corruption of auricular confession. It
says to them: Beware! for ye might be tempted, as surely you will, to do or
say something against honor and purity. Husbands and fathers, who rightly
value the honor of your wives and daughters more than all treasures, who
consider it too precious a boon to be exposed to the dangers of pollution,
and who would prefer to lose your life a thousand times than to see those
you love most on earth fall in the snares of the seducer, read once more
and ponder what your church asks the priest after he has heard your wife or
daughter in confession: "Have you not, either during or after confession,
done or said anything with a diabolical intention of seducing your female
penitents?"

If your priest remains deaf to these words addressed to his conscience, you
cannot help giving heed to them and understanding their full significance.
You can not be easy and fear nothing from that priest in those close
interviews with your wives and daughters, when his superiors and your own
Church tremble for him, and question his purity and honesty. They see a
great danger for both the confessor and his penitent; for they know that
confession has many a time been the pretence or the cause of the most
shameful seductions.

If there was no real danger for the chastity of women, in confessing to a
man their most secret sins, do you believe that your popes and theologians
would be so stupid as to acknowledge it and put to confessors questions
that would be most insulting and out of place, should there be no occasion
for them?

Is it not presumption and folly on your part to think that there is no
danger, when the Church of Rome tells you positively that there is danger,
and uses the strongest terms in expressing her uneasiness and apprehension?

Why, your church sees the most pressing reasons to fear for the honor of
your wives and daughters, as well as for the chastity of her priest: and
still you remain unconcerned, indifferent to the fearful peril to which
they are exposed! Are you like the Jewish people of old, to whom it was
said; "Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive
not?" (Isa. vi, 9).

But if you see or suspect the danger you are warned of; if the eye of your
intelligence can fathom the dreadful abyss where the dearest objects of
your heart are in danger of falling, then it behoves you to keep them from
the paths that lead to the fearful chasm. Do not wait till it is too late,
when they are too near the precipice to be rescued. You may think the
danger to be far off, while it is near at hand. Profit by the sad
experience of so many victims of confession who have been irretrievably
lost, irrecoverably ruined for time and eternity. The voice of your
conscience, of honor, of God himself, tells you that it may become too late
to save them from destruction, through your neglect and procrastination.
While thanking God for having preserved them from temptations that have
proved fatal to so many married or unmarried women, do not lose a single
moment in taken the necessary means to keep them from temptation and falls.

Instead of allowing them to go and kneel at the feet of a man to obtain the
remission of their sins, lead them to the cross, the only place where they
can secure pardon and peace everlasting. And why, after so many unfruitful
attempts, should they try any longer to wash themselves in a puddle, when
the pure waters of eternal life are offered them so freely, through Christ
Jesus, their only Saviour and Mediator?

Instead of seeking their pardon from a poor and miserable sinner, weak and
tempted as they are, let them go to Christ, the only strong and perfect
man, the only hope and salvation of the world.

O poor deluded Catholic woman! listen no longer to the deceiving words of
the Church of Rome, who has no pardon, no peace for you, but only snares;
who offers you thraldom and shame in return for the confession of your
sins! But listen rather to the invitations of your Saviour, who has died on
the cross that you might be saved, and who alone can give rest to your
weary souls.

Harken to His words when he says to you: "Come to me, O ye heavily laden,
crushed, as it were, under the burden of your sins, and I shall give you
rest.... I am the physician of your souls.... Those who are well have no
need of a physician, but those who are sick.... Come then to me and ye
shall be healed.... I have sent back nor lost none who have come to me....
Invoke my name.... believe in me.... repent.... love God and your neighbor
as yourself, and you shall be saved.... For all who believe in me and call
upon my name, shall be saved.... When I am raised up between heaven and
earth, I shall draw every one to me"....

O, mothers and daughters, instead of going to the priest for pardon and
salvation, go to Jesus, who is so pressingly inviting you, and the more so
as you have more need of divine help and grace. Even if you are as great a
sinner as Mary Magdalene you can, like her, wash the feet of the Saviour
with the flowing tears of your repentance and your love, and like her,
receive the pardon of your sins.

To Jesus then, and to him alone for the confession and pardon of your sins:
for there only you can find peace, light, and life!

* * * * *

CHAPTER XI.

SOME OF THE MATTERS ON WHICH THE PRIEST OF ROME MUST QUESTION HIS
PENITENTS.

A CHAPTER FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF LEGISLATORS, HUSBANDS, AND FATHERS.

* * * * *

Dens wants the confessors to interrogate on the following matters:--

1. "Peccant uxores, quae susceptum viri semen ejiciunt, vel ejicere
conantur." (Dens, tom. vii. p. 147).

2. "Peccant conjuges mortaliter, si copula incepta, cohibeant
seminationem."

3. "Si vir jam seminaverit, dubium fit an femina lethaliter peccat, si se
retrahat a seminando; aut peccat lethaliter vir non expectando seminationem
uxoris." (p. 153).

4. "Peccant conjuges inter se circa actum conjugalem. Debet servari modus,
sive situs; imo ut non servetur debitum vas, sed copula habeatur in vase
praepostero, alioquoque non naturali. Si fiat accedendo a postero, a latere,
stando, sedendo, vel si vir sit succumbus." (p. 166).

5. "Impotentia. Est incapacitas perficiendi copulam carnalem perfectam cum
seminatione viri in vase se debito, seu, de se, aptam generationi. Vel, ut
si mulier sit nimis arcta respectu unius viri, non respectu alterius".
(vol. vii. p. 273).

6. "Notatur quod pollutio, in mulieribus possit perfici, ita ut semen earum
non effluat extra membrum genitale.

Indicium istius allegat Billuart, si scilicet mulier sensiat seminis
resolutionem cum magno voluptatis sensu, qua completa, passio satiatur"
(vol. iv. p. 168).

7. "Uxor se accusans, in confessione, quod negaverit debitum, interrogetur
an ex pleno rigore juris sui id petiverit" (vol. vii. p. 168).

8. "Confessarius poenitentem, qui confitetur se peccasse cum sacerdote, vel
sollicitatam ab eo ad turpia, potest interrogare utrum ille sacerdos sit
ejus confessarius, an in confessione sollitaverit" (vol. vi. p. 294).

There are a great many other unmentionable things on which Dens, in his
fourth, fifth, and seventh volumes, requires the confessor to ask from his
penitent, which I omit.

Now let us come to Liguori. That so-called Saint, Liguori is not less
diabolically impure than Dens, in his questions to the women. But I will
cite only two of the things on which the spiritual physician of the Pope
must not fail to examine his spiritual patient:--

1. "Quaerat an sit semper mortale, si vir immitat pudenda in os uxoris?...

Verius affirmo quia, in hoc actu, ob calorem oris, adest proximum periculum
pollutionis, et videtur nova species luxuriae contra naturam, dicta,
irruminatio."

2. "Eodem modo, Sanchez damnat virum de mortali, qui, in actu copulae,
immiteret digitum in vas praeposterum uxoris; quia, ut ait, in hoc actu
adest affectus ad Sodomiam" (Liguori, tom. vi. p. 935).

The celebrated Burchard, Bishop of Worms, has made a book of the questions
which had to be put by the confessors to their penitents of both sexes.
During several centuries it was the standard book of the priests of Rome.
Though that work to-day is out of print, Dens, Liguori, Debreysne, &c.,
&c., have ransacked its polluting pages, and given them to study to the
modern confessors, in order to question their penitents. I will select only
a few questions of the Roman Catholic bishop to the young men:--

1. "Fecisti solus tecum fornicationem ut quidam facere solent; ita dico ut
ipse tuum membrum virile in manum tuam acciperes, et sic duceres praeputium
tuum, et manu propria commoveres, ut, sic, per illam delectationem semen
projiceres?"

2. "Fornicationem fecisti cum masculo intra coxas; ita dico ut tuum virile
membrum intra coxas alterius mitteres, et sic agitando semen funderes?"

3. "Fecisti fornicationem, ut quidem facere solent, ut tuum virile membrum
in lignum perforatum, aut in aliquod hujus modi mitteres, et, sic, per
illam commotionem et delectationem semen projiceres?"

4. "Fecisti fornicationem contra naturam, id est, cum masculis vel
animalibus coire, id est cum equo, cum vacca, vel asina, vel aliquo
animali?" (vol. i. p. 136.)

Among the questions we find in the Compendium of the Right Rev. Burchard,
Bishop of Worms, which must be put to women, are the following (p. 115):--

1. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres solent, quoddam molimen, aut machinamentum
in modum virilis membri ad mensuram tuae voluptatis, et illud loco
verendorum tuorum aut alterius cum aliquibus ligaturis, ut fornicationem
faceres cum aliis mulieribus, vel alia eodem instrumento, sive alio tecum?"

2. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut jam supra dicto
molimine, vel alio aliquo machinamento, tu ipsa in te solam faceres
fornicationem?"

3. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, quando libidinem se
vexantem extinguere volunt, quae se conjungunt quasi coire debeant et
possint, et conjungunt invicem puerperia sua, et sic, fricando pruritum
illarum extinguere desiderant?"

4. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut cum filio suo parvulo
fornicationem faceres, ita dico ut filium tuum supra turpidinem tuam
poneres ut sic imitaberis fornicationem?"

5. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut succumberes aliquo
jumento et illud jumentum ad coitum qualicumque posses ingenio, ut sic
coiret tecum?"

The celebrated Debreyne has written a whole book, composed of the most
incredible details of impurities, to instruct the young confessors in the
art of questioning their penitents. The name of the book is "Moechiology,"
or "treaty on all the sins against the six (seven) and the nine
commandments, as well as on all the questions of the married life which
refer to them."

That work is much approved and studied in the Church of Rome. I do not know
that the world has ever seen anything comparable to the filthy and infamous
details of that book. I will cite only two of the questions which Debreyne
wants the confessor to put to his penitent.

To the young men (page 95) the confessor will ask:--

"Ad cognoscendum an usque ad pollutionem se tetigerint, quando tempore et
quo fine se tetigerint; an tunc quosdam motus in corpore experti fuerint,
et per quantum temporis spatium; an cessantibus tactibus nihil insolitum et
turpe acciderit; an non longe majorem in corpore voluptatem perceperint in
fine tactuum quam in eorum principio; an tum in fine quando magnam
delectationem carnalem senserunt, omnes motus corporis cessaverint; an non
madefacti fuerint?" &c., &.

To the girl the confessor will ask:--

"Quae sese tetigisse fatentur, an non aliquem pruritum extinguere
tentaverit, et utrum pruritus ille cessaverit cum magnam senserint
voluptatem; an tunc, ipsimet tactus cessaverint?" &c., &c.

The Right Rev. Kenrick, late Bishop of Boston, United States, in his book
for the teaching of confessors on what matters they must question their
penitents, has the following, which I select among thousands as impure and
damnable to the soul and body:--

"Uxor quae, in usu matrimonii, se vertit, ut non recipiat semen, vel statim
post illud acceptum surgit, ut expellatur, lethaliter peccat; sed opus non
est ut diu resupina jaceat, quum matrix, brevi, semen attrahat, et mox,
arctissime claudatur" (vol. iii. p. 317).

"Puellae patienti licet se vertere, et conari ut non recipiat semen, quod
injuria ei immittitur; sed, exceptum, non licet expellere, quia jam
possessionem pacificam habet, et haud absque injuria naturae ejiceretur"
(tom. iii. p. 317).

"Conjuges senes plerumque coeunt absque culpa, licet contingat semen extra
vas effundi; id enim per accidens fit ex infirmitate naturae. Quod si vires
adeo sint fractae ut nulla sit seminandi intra vas spes, jam nequeunt jure
conjugii uti" (tom. iii. p. 317).

* * * * *

Notes

[1] "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every
woman have her own husband." (1 Cor. vii. 2.)

[2] A silver box containing consecrated bread, which is believed to be the
real body, blood, and divinity of Jesus Christ.

[3] And remark that all their religious authors who have written on that
subject hold the same language. They all speak of those continual degrading
temptations; they all lament the damning sins which follow those
temptations; they all entreat the priests to fight those temptations and
repent of those sins.

[4] He is dead long ago.

[5] By the word _penitents_, Rome means not those who _repent_, but those
who _confess_ to the priest.

[6] He died many years after when at the head of the Laval University.

* * * * *

Corrections made to printed original.

Chapter I. Para. 9. "I do here publicly challenge the whole Roman Catholic
priesthood" - 'hear' in original.

ibid. Para 13. "everywhere they struggle nerve themselves with a superhuman
courage" - 'stuggle' in original.

Chapter II. Para. 1. "The terrible and mysterious cause of her death was
known" - 'known' in original.

Chapter III. Para 9. "he suspects that nobody but his co-sinner brethren" -
'brethern' in original.

Chapter V. Para 12. "a good, honest, Christian, and godly thing" -
'Christain' in original.

ibid. Para 36. "particularly if high education has added to her natural
shrewdness." - 'particulary' in original.

Chapter VI. Para 30. "humiliation and opprobrium of the questionable
privileges of an uncertain paternity." - 'questioable' in original

ibid. Para 39. "it is nothing else than a school of immorality." - 'im-' at
end of one line is not completed in original, this completion seems best to
fit the sense of the next paragraph.

CHAPTER VII. Heading - 'CHAPTER VIII.' in original.

ibid. Para 12. "the obligation and power which every one of His disciples
had of forgiving" - 'desciples' in original.

Chapter IX. Para 80. "secreto et absque arbitrio" - 'and' for 'et' in
original. "aliquid loquendum habet" - 'loquem dum' in original

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