The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-11-07
ABOUT THE CONFESSIONAL
REY. MIR. SLATTERY, Ex-PRIEST I'D
DRESSES 4 LARGE AUDIENCE.

The Dangers in Protestant Marryinga
Catholic-Celibacy in the Roman Priest
houd-Greek charlottesville Confession
Box, Etc.
Warner hall was completely filled
again last evening with an audience
to hear ex-Priest Slattery speak on
Secrets and Mysteries of the Romish
Confessional" After an introduction
explaining the points he wished to
make, Mr. Slattery said that if a Prot
estant man marries a Catholic wife
and ever expresses the least belief in
any Catholic doctrine he is annointed
by a priest, on his last bed Of sickness,
and of this the last sickness of General
Sherman was an example. rhe Romish
church looks upon no marriage cere-
mony as sanctified which is not per-
formed by a priest and considers all
Protestant marriages as immoral The
pope allows members of his church to
marry Protestants on certain conditions.
These are that the Protestant party
shall promise to allow to the other
freedom in his or her religion and also
if any children are born that these
shall be brought up in the Roman
church and faith. The law Of celibacy
in the Catholic church is unscriptural,
untraditional before the fourth century,
and unnatural. There is an almost
direct command from God to marry,
and Peter, from whom the church
claims so much authority and who was
the first pope, was married man. The
first attempt to enforce celibacy was
in S05. This failed, as did also the next
attempt at the Council of Nice in 1886,
but in 1856 the first edict providing for
1t was issued by the pope. The priests
of the Greek Catholic church, however,
are allowed to marry and of these mar
ried priests there are six in the United
States. The Catholics of the United
States are trying to colonze the United
States with Roman Catholics from
foreign countries and said Mr.. Slat-
terry, when l was a priest in Ireland
letter was received by my bishop
from Archbishop Ireland of Minnesota.
asking for a party of Catholic settlers.
Six bands of Greek Catholic settlers
were sent over and with each one was
sent a married Greek priest. This the
priests in America thought was bad
example for priests to set before Amer
lean Catholics and asked to have them
recalled. Then the Greek Catholics
threatened to join a Protestant church
pope had to allow them to remain
In the Roman church the members
can do anything else but think. Priests
must obey the pope and allow him to do
all the thinking for them. There are
three ways in which priests evade the
laws against theirmarriage: BY 6omes-
ticity, by concubinage, and by private
marriage. Rome denies the priest mar
riage, but allows concubinage. 1t CON
siders marriage by priests more of
sin than domesticity. The very minute
priest takes step toward marriage
he is communicated, because he sins
against the pope, but when he violates
a law of God he may be absolved
Priests are confessed by each other,
although it is commonly supposed that
they confess to the bishop, In many
instances a priest confesses a sin to a
brother priest and then at once be-
comes confessor to the other for the
same sin.
Mr.. Slattery then gave illustrations
to show how much greater a sin mar
riage is considered in the Catholic
priesthood than human frailty He also
described Buffers "Lives Of the Saints"
and said that in many of the better
class of Catholic families it occupies the
same place which the Bible does in
Protestant families.
In the confessional box the priest is
separated from the penitent by a par
tition in which is cut hole through
which the confession may be heard
The person to be confessed always goes
through a formula before the confession
begins the first of which is: "Bless me,
oh Father, / have sinned," and then
crosses and blesses himself or herself
as the case may be. They must then
tell of all their sins and in this they
are helped by questions from the
priests.
In many instance the penitents do not
tell the truth, and several instances in
which this was proven were recited. In
some instances, Mr.. Slattery said that
old people over ninety years of age
have confessed to him on their death
bed that they had never told the truth
in the confessional. The confession box
is dangerous to the state. If murder
er, for instance, confesses his crime to
a priest and the priest is afterward
called to the witness box to testify, he
will swear that he knows nothing about
do by the pope. The church says that
the priest in the confession box is as a
god, and so is not supposed to know
about the crime confessed, as a man.
He then told of frequent drunkenness
among priests, and spoke of one priest
in Ireland whom he knew who was
drunk almost continually, and in the
confession box was frequently so stupid
ly drunk that he went to sleep. He
surely would swear truthfully that he
didn't know what was said to him in the
confession. A church which dares to
step on or destry the sanctity of an oath
is a danger to any community on earth.
The Roman church compels boys and
girls to confess to its priests and then
forbids them to tell their parents or
anyone what transpires in the confess
sion box There is nothing more sacred
than the confidence between parents
and children, and anything which for
bids the confidence is horrible
rTrI.