The San Francisco call., 1895-12-12
v, v, FOOTE MAY NOT ACT WITH Outflow.

sages to which referred:
'The sisters are to be pitied, said Rev. Mr..
Case, land 1t is 10 be hoped that the time Will
come when Gods sunlight will pour into every
nunnery and convent and loathsome place on
the earth.
''The confessional is an accursed thing.
young man told me his experience there ana
the questions put to him, and l wonder why
the unmarried priests are so much interested
in the chastity OF the young men ana women.
This same young man told me that the priests
asked his girl such questions that he forbid
her going to confession any longer"
Either DR.. Case said these words or he did
not. II he said them he has no right to accuse
me of Misrepresentation and ii he did not say
them he should have had the manliness to call
the Chronicle TO account Tor 1nventing them.
They are words such as no decent man would
care to father. They reek with that same
lewd bigotry which led another preacher to
besmirch the name, on the word OF barroom
loafer, of Father Damien, when that martyr of
charity had passed to his reward. The man
who could utter them is a grade lower than
wife-beater. The brute who maltreats woman
at least can only hurt her body, but the
wretch who slanders the innocent hurts that
which is dearer than lie itself-a woman's
good name.
DR.. Case accuses me of taking refuge behind
women in this controversy. Permit me TO say
that there is no need of my taking refuge be-
hind anybody with such an antagonist as DR..
Case. ] do not wish, however, to allow him to
retire under this subterfuge. EqulVocal Jokes
cannot hide the fact that ne and the men who
hire him are engaged in war upon women
under pretense OF protecting our American IN
stitutionS. have said before that priests can
stand all the abuse which DR.. Case can heap
upon them. We are men, and can defend our
own cause. But we do protest against dragging
Catholic women into this controversy. What
have they said or done that their names
should be mentioned at all? What crime have
they committed that they should be insulted
with the pity OF man like DR.. Case?
will not sully your pages, Mr.. Editor, with
the foul ISLANDERS which have for now nigh
two years been circulated through the public
prints in this town concerning Catholic ladies.
/ need no other proof of the fact that DR.. Case
is making war on women than his own letter
over his own signature. In that letter he
makes the unequiyocal statement that the
sisters in the Catholic converts are "in thral-
DOM" l brand that statement here and now
as q foul calumny. There are in this City to-
day over 500 sisters engaged in various works
of mercy and charity, and there is not one
who cannot leave her convent at the hrst
moment she chooses.
They are as independent in their own homes
and as free from external influence, prlestly or
otherwise, as any ladies in the land. There is
not convent whose doors are not open to the
visits OF any respectable people VINO may wish
to go through them, and there Is not room,
from garrett to basement that the nuns are not
willing to show to their visitors The bonds
which bind the sisters 10 their converts are
the bonds OF charity-the same bonds which
bind the Methodist deaconesseS to their lives
OF good. If | should come before the public
and with crockodile tears pity the fate OF these
Methodist women because they are in thrall-
dom to the Methodist preachers there is not an
honest man in San Francisco who would not
brand me as hypocrite and blackguard.
The members of the sisterhoodS in this City
are not strangers here, neither are they with
out friends. Their families live among US, and
their parents, their brothers, their sisters have
as free and as uninterrupted intercourse with
them as with any other members OF the family.
The sister OF the Lord High Chancellor OF Eng
land is in one convent, the sister of United
States Senator is in another, the sister OF
lfly1Q Mt 4, n a 8
the head OF a third. The daughters Ofourmost
prominent business and professional men are
to be found in every clolster. Ii the sisters
need protection their own flesh and blood are
here TO give it TO them, without calling on the
pity of en- obscure ranter whose pity is as in
eff1cacious as it is insincere.
The true inwardneSS of DR.. Cases pity may
be seen by his citation of Edith 0'Gorman to
bear witness against the sisterhoods. The dis
honest and disreputable character OF this ad-
ventures has been exposed again and again,
yet DR.. Case imports her to SANDER ladies who
were born here and raised here and whose
every day has been marked by deeds of charity
and benefcence.
Dr. Case acknowledges that the Chronicles
report of his words concerning the confes-
sional was correct. "If to state" he says,
"simple facts concerning the confessional is
obscenity then let those who perpetuate this
unscriptural, unauthorized and blasphemous
relic OF the dark ages be responsible for it,
Let me state right here that if DR.. Case con-
fined himself to simple facts about the confes-
sional or any other institution OF Gods church
we would have no fault to find with him
But what / do accuse him of is relating as
facts things which are not facts The practice
or confession is neither unscriptural, unau-
thorized or blasphemous. 1t has been in use
among Christians from the time of the Apos-
ties, and is commanded in the plain words of
Holy Writ. The greatest intellects OF this age,
as of every other age, have been convinced of
its divine institution, or they would not have
countenanced it by their own practice. Dr.
Case knows as well as any one else that in this
xUp1 he nvnr n Z In
most upright and learned members of the
Protestant churches have been converted to
Catholicity. These men, the brightest at the
bar, the most erudite on the bench, may be
seen month after month kneeling at the con-
fessional.
If they are convinced that it is a divine in
stitution, what the talents or the mental
achievements of DR.. Case that his mere word
should prove it "unscriptural. unauthorized
and blasphemous"
Against the whole Catholic population OF
San Francisco DR.. Case brings the word of an
anonymous young man and his anonymous
girl. ! wish TO remark that even ron-Catholics
will understand that young man who forbids
his girl to go to confession is just the person TO
give DR.. Case information of the precise kind
that DR.. Case wants. When that young man
stated that he was asked improper questions in
the confessional he told all untruth. and DR..
Cases repetition OF the untruth is calumny
against every Catholic in San Francisco.
If DR.. Case viii go into any of our churches
any Saturday night he will find that the con-
fessionals are besieged by men and women,
young and old. These people can challenge
comparison in intellect, in morals, in learning
and in virtue with any men or women in these
United States. When Dr.. Case comes with his
obscene insinuations he SANDERS every one of
these people, not because he has facts to back
him up, but for the very lust Of slander.
As to the Catholic priests for whom DR.. Case
has no pity, allow me to state that they chal-
lenge the fullest comparison with DIR. Case or
any other preacher in this land. In education,
in training in personal and civic virtues in
every quality which goes to make good man
or a good citizen Catholic priests can hold their
own with the clergymen OF any other denomi-
nation.
In attending to their own business, in re-
spectilg the opinions OF their neighbors. in
abstaining from politics, in respect for freedom
of conscience and liberty of speech they are
head and shoulders bove the crowd of ignor-
ant ranters who have been inflicted on this
City for years. The priests of America need no
apologists either from their own ranks or from
the ranks OF their cO-religionists. They are
content to leave the vindication OF their good
name to that great non-Catholic public which
has always rendered to them that respect
which it has emphatically denied to men of
the caliber of DR.. Case.
DR.. Case declares that he did not consult
with the Methodist laity before expressing his
thoughts. II DR.. Case had counseed with the
laity of his church he would never have SIAN
deTed women or insulted men. The Methodist
gentlemen of San Francisco know their Catho-
lie fellow-citizens. both clerical and lay, too
well to believe them guilty of the charges