American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1855-05-03


no great difficulty as 10 the other matters
which passed rapidlyin review before me.
Must l go to Confession? Ny preiudiees
said, Yes. My reason said, No. And nv
logic was simply as folIows:-If truly
repent of my sins God will forgive me; iii
do not, the priest cannot absolve me-
And spurned as unreasonable, and as an
insult to my common sense, your terrible
doctrine that every Christian is bound,
under pain Of domnation, to confess to a
priest all his mortal sins, which after dill
gent examination he can possibly remem-
ber; yea even his most secret sins; his very
thoughts; yea and all the circumstances of
them which are Of any moment" l ask
you, sir, if this dogma Of the Council of
Trent is not horrible dogma? 1t sus-
pends upon confessing to priest, what
the Bible suspends on believing in Christ!
Do you, sir, believe it? Can you believe
it?
With yet greater adherence, l gave up
the doctrine of Reconsideration AS
explained by DR.. Challoner, in his Cath
ohc Christian Instructed" Chap. 5, il
means ''that the bread and wine are chang
ed by the consecration into the body and
blood of Christ; and are so changed that
Christ himself, true God, and true man, is
truly, really, and substantially present, in
the sacrament" With this doctrine in
view, | went to witness the administration
ofthe Eucharist as you call it. went to
Saint Peters in Barclay street The com
municants drew around the altar upon their
knees With little box in his hand tile
priest passed from one to the other, taking
a wafer, smaller than that used in scaling
letter, from the box, and placing it upon
the extended tongue of the communicant.
was always taught that the teeth must
not touch the waier;-that it must melt
upon the tongue. This | find TO be the
law ofyour church. witnessed the GER
emony, as l had often done before. | re-
tired from the scene, asking these ques-
tions: Is that little wafer the real body and
blood Of Christ? Does the priest, in that
little box. not as large as a snuff box, car
ry two or three hundred real bodies of
Christ? DO these commandments, each in
their turn, eat the real body and blood of
Christ? My dear sir, | cannot express to
you the violence with which my mind re-
jested the absurdiiy Look at it in what
light you may, is abhorrent to our COM
mon reason--it gives the lie to every sense
with which God has endowed us. 1t is q
wicked imposition.
Having gone through this process, not
with light and triiling, but with serious
mind, my preiudices rising in stormy re-
bellions against my convictions, raised
up my eyes, and behold, my religion was
gone! The priest was jugglcr, and his
religion fable! Every thing that had
every learned from parent and priest TO
esteem as religion, was now rejected as
false; and not knowing but that this was
all of religion that was in the world, had
no alternative but infdelity. l had no test
of truth but my reason, and when l bro't
your system to that, was compelled to
reject it, not only as false, but as mon
strous absurdity, and with it, all religion
Nor have |, dear sir, any hesitation in
saying that the process of my own mind
from popery to infdelity, is that through
which multitudes of minds have passed,
and are now passing. To an inquiring
mind, which knows nothing of the Bible,
infdelity is tie fruit of popery. Hence in
papal countries, whilst the masses are su-
perstitious, the intelligent and educated
are infdel. If they sustain the vulgar re-
ligion, it is for reasons of state. Hence,
the in6delity of France, of Spain, of Italy.
AT the present hour the mind of these
countries is more infdel than papal. And
this is true of every country on the globe
where your religion prevails. 1t makes
the masses superstitious, and the intelli-
gent. infdels.
And permit me to say, my dear sir, in
reference to yourself, that have far too
high regard for your intelligence TO admit
for moment that you believe in the alb
surd doctrines which you church teaches.
Like the ancient priests of Egypt, you must
have one class of opinions for the people,
and another for yourself. Will you say
that this is harsh and uncharitable? None
knows better than yourself that history af-
firms it of popes, cardinals, and bishops
that have lived before you. On no other
ground can possibly account for your
remaining an hour in the Roman Catholic
Church. 9
With great respect, yours,
KIRWAN.