The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-15 00:00:00

THE CONFESSIONAL.

TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF A CATHOLIC
PRIEST AT TURIN FOR THIRTY-THREE
CASES OF SEDUCTION.
The Criminal Court of Turin has lately been
occupied with the hearing of a case which has
spread consternation and shame through many of
the most respectably connected families in the
Sardinian capital, and contributed not a little to
increase the feelings of dislike growing up of late
towards the Catholic clergy. When M. Michela
publishes another edition of his celebrated work on
" Priests, Women, and Families," he will be enabled
to enrich it with illustrations far more telling and
effective than the propositions which he has laid.
down—illustrations to which it would be difficult;
to find a parallel, we will not say in real life, but
even in the darkest pages of romance. For the
honour of the Catholic priesthood, for the honour of
religion, nay, for the honour of human nature itself,
let us trust that the crimes just laid bare to the
gaze of avenging law and justice are no less mt.
wonted than appalling.
The trial which has excited such a sensation in
Turin was that of Don Gurlino, attached, in the
capacity of second curate, first to the church of San.
Carlo, afterwards to that of the Carmelite order.
Amongst his regular professional duties were of
course those connected with the confessional, and.
these duties he violated in a manner so foul and so
atrocious that no less than 33 young girls would
appear to have fallen victims to his systematic and
scientific profligacy. Not more than 40 years of age,
possessing a singularly handsome face and figure,
Don Gurlino combined with the natural influence
wielded over the mind of the youthful penitent by
a spiritual guide, the influence, not less natural, of
his own personal attractions. Both influences were
skilfully brought to bear in the exciting privacy of
the confessional. All the opportunities which it
affords of gradually, yet surely, tainting the mind
were employed, and employed with too fatal a suc-
cess. The wretch was, it appears, in the habit of
accompanying oral temptations with the appliances
and means of obscene books and lascivious prints, to
heighten and accelerate their effect. Working on
the passions by a graduated scale of literary and
pictorial excitement, the curate of " St. Charles "
and the " Carmelites " could seize, for his infernal
ends, the exact moment when the unsuspecting con-
fidence of girlhood prepared for him an easy prey.
Don Gurlino was at last detected by the very
means which he had employed. The relations of a
young creature, one of his latest victims, found in
her possession an obscene print, and insisted on her
telling them from whom she had procured it. The
girl refused for some time, but, yielding to their
menaces, stammered forth the name of her confes-
sor. She added that not she alone, but likwise
several of her young friends, had received from Don
Gurlino immoral books and prints, and debauched by
his arts, had yielded up their honour to their spiri-
tual guide. The relations at once communicated the
facts to, and deposited the print with, the district
police magistrate, who lost no time in communicating
with the higher law authorities, and these latter at
once instituted criminal proceedings against the
priest. Although the trial was conducted with
closed doors, enough of the evidence transpired to
fill all Turin with horror and indignation. The
guilty acts of the criminal appear to have extended
over a term of several years. The full extent of
his debaucheries during all that period cannot,
of course, be ascertained. One fact, however, is
beyond all doubt—that on the trial itself 33 young
girls bore testimony to the adoption towards them-
selves of the wicked arts of seduction with which
the criminal stood charged.
On this overwhelming mass of evidence Don
Gurlino was found guilty, and sentenced by the
Criminal Court of Turin to seven years' solitary
confinement. The term of the sentence will pro-
bably be abridged by natural causes. Shame, if not
remorse, has already worked such fearful ravages
on the prisoner that on the last day of the trial he
was hardly any longer recognisable.—Post.