The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-07-11
The Convent Outrage.

and absurd statements as to converts,
nuns, ETC., but generally where the alleged
scene of events was remote and the facts
impossible to be investigated. We find, to
our surprise, that the Presbyterian news
paper of this city has had tho temerity to
locate one of Its blood and thunder stories
right in our midst in New Orleans.
Our readers viii remember the foreible
abduction from tie Convent Of st. Joseph
of one of the sisters, as an event
which occurred several weeks ago. The
facts were all given and sworn to by the
mostIrespectabley Witnesses making out
clear. case of forcible abduction in theper-
son Of IA young lady twenty sight years of
age, who had voluntarily chosen the abode
in which she was, resisted all argu-
ments and entreaties for giving it up, and
who was violently carried off by relatives
in her conventual habit, in spite of the
most determined resistance on her part.
Yet the Presbyterian makes of her an "es-
capped victim"
Truly the faith of our neighbor in Maria
Monk" and similay standard works of
Presbyterian theology, must be implicit
and it's general appetite for monkish hor-
rors Unsuitable, that it should swallow such
an absurdity as the Inconsistency between
the facts in this case and its theory of the
case. A young lady is carried away IhY
violence, in spite of her utmost resistance |;
the Maria Monk spectacles are put on, and
she is seen rs an escaped victim. Of course
the peryersion of vision is no greater in
this case than in other fictitious horrors
palmed of on the public, but it SO much
nearer home that we are startled at its
audacity. f.,
Tie Recorder, before whom the case was
brought a few days ago, takes a different
view of the case from the PresdyteriaR, and
thinks its strange that the young lady is
not produced in court when he had spe-
cially demanded it. He evidently does not
see an escaped victim in a person who is
not yet at liberty. ..sss,.. SSH
In default of facts to sustain its charge
in this, home matter, the Presbyterian
makes charges equally reckless as to the
Saurin trial recently had in England. Why
the very nature of the case itself shows the
faisity of all these charges so far as it goes.
In that instance the Sister making the COM
plant charged the Superior, not with the
crime of retaining her an unwilling pris-
oner, but of trying inievery way to get her
out of the house, while she herself was
equally determined to stay. Why then
appeal to such case to arouse sympathy
for the "poor inmates of these institu-
tions u and for @ escaped victims" against
their "jailors."
We do not insult the common sense of
this community by arguing upon the cor
rectness of such charges; we reproduce
them merely to show the malignant dispo-
sition manifested to decry and SANDER
whatever is most holy and sacred. Here is
the PreSbyteridn's own language:
The published account of tho Saurin trial
reveals Hnch of the cruelties pracfsed upon
the poor inmates of these institutions, that
public sympathy, in the present case, is less
likely to be with the jailors than with the
escaped VICTIM i
Even supposingy However, that these
things were trpe, that such visions We're
sometimes >ycalized, and that the law had
to intervene occasionally to rescue hapless
victims from fiendish persecution, would
that put the whole institution under the
ban of the law and beyond cixil prnteetieH
Gould not tirose who persistent in their de-
-termiaatiea to stay be protected IN their
personal rights, or should they be aban-
doned to the caprice of every individual of
superior strength who might choose to
amuse himself by going in and turning
them all ont of doors If the Prcs6y-
tcrian's procivities in this case should pre-
vail in our courts, and the perpetrators of
this outrage be regarded as public benefao-
tors, then let instruction be at once given
to the police that nuns and Sisters of
Charity have no civil rights, and that peo-
pie who go into their houses and carry them
off must not be interfefed with.
Our neighbor grows merry over what it
chooses to Gala historical bIuuder in illus
tfating point made on this subject in this
paper, from the life of st. Paul, and thinks
that we can scarcely afford to sheer at