The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-17
HE KNOWS HIS FATE
Rev. Jean Berger Has
a Single Chance
Remaining.
SUSPENSION NEXT IN ORDER.
If Usurping Priest Says
Mass Today He Will Be
Punished at Once.
SUSPENSION NEXT IN ORDER

North Brookfeld, Sept. 16-Rev. Jean
Berger now knows his fate. He re-
ceived notice of it shortly before noon
today in an official document from Rt
Rev. Thomas D. Beaver, bishop of
Springfield. The document was handed
to Priest Berger personally by Consta-
BILE Henry Hatch.
1t tells Priest Berger the penalty. to
be melted out to him as merited by the
crime which exists in the eyes of the
church of Rome. There is one chance
left for the usurping priest, and that is
that he abandon his course immediate
ly.
II he persists and says mass here to-
morrow, he will be suspended ipso fac
to. This last is in a nutshell the con
tents of the official document sent di-
rect to Rev Jean Berger by Bishop
Thomas d. Beaver.
There is no misunderstanding or mis-
interpreting. 1t is plain definite and
to the point. 1t has but one meaning
and that is that as soon as he has
celebrated mass tomorrow, Rev. Jean
Berger will be cut off from the church
of Rome in disgrace and dishonor and
leftto wander despised and disrespected
Nv all denominations, a second Chini-
alN and living illustration of the fate
of q churchmsn who gives up to the
greed of gold or who, after being or
dainedHN1 priest with the JUNCTION of God
upon hiS forehead, desecrates the vows
he has t2A en- and presumes to usurp
authority.
OF course IN will still be a priest
for since the ytay inception of the
church of Rome the tradition, "once
a priest, always } priest" has been
gaining in strength n til it has become
almost a dogma of the church itself.
The penalty that PrfA't Berger IS
slated to undergo is one Oh the most
severe that can be inflicted by eplsco-
pal authority, 1t does not cur the man
off entirely from the church a II ne
were accommodated, but on the
other hand it is much stronger \ nan
either a silence or a censure would \ )e'
1t will take from Priest Berger n $
faculties to exercise priestly functions,
and, not only this the document which
has the canonical seal and the sigma
ture of the ordinary of the diocese win
convey a solemn warning to the fol-
lowers of the imposing priest to beware
lest they receive the same or even
worse penalty.
BY the powers of this document Rev.
Jean Berger is prohibited from admin
istering any Of the sacraments To
again merit canonical appreciation he
must go through a course of penance
similar to that now being performed
at Rome by Bishop Villate. Every
time he exercises priestly function
his crime becomes more grave in the
eyes of the church, and he has already
defied episcopal and papal authority
beyond the limit where patience ceases
to be virtue.
Whether priest Berger will take ad-
vantage of the one loop-hole left for
his escape, is unknown, but there is
little likelihood that he will, for he has
already shown himself perfectly indif-
ferent to the consequences as long as he
can get followers to support him.
Now, however, the eyes of the French
people cannot help being opened, and
it would be an insult to their intelli-
gence to presume that for any length of
time they will go on following this in
dividual who has made himself so OBJ
noxious to the diocesan authority as
to merit a suspension.
The backbone of his strength is bro
ken. He realizes it as well as any one,
and has written a pleading letter to
Rev. II. j, Wrenn. pastor of st. Jo
seph's church, asking for a conference,
that they might discuss things, priest
to priest 1t is almost needless to add
that the interview has not been grant
ed.
Incidentally, it is worthy of mention
that The Spy was the first paper to
take the stand that priest Berger had
no right here, and that the church au
thorities would proceed against him.
That occurrences since have fully JUS
titled The Spy's stand, and that The
iT1fi Ct strong
papers very soon saw their mistake
and jumped on behind
Also, that FIR Wrenn has nothing but
praise for The Spy's work on this case,
and has told The Spy reporter 1.-THE Spy
has taken the right course, and / APP
prove of it, This was some days ago,
before the other newspapers had dis
covered that they were fioundering, and
must take a big brace to keep within
hearing of the music.
The contents of Bishop Beaven's let,
ter were told in part by The Spy re-
porter to one of the French leaders,
early this afternoon. He insisted that
there would be masses tomorrow, just
as last Sunday, and that FIR Berger
still has a trump card to play that no
one knows anything about. The Spy
man suggested that this trump may
be the joker, but the suggestion was
repudiated.
TODAY a Frenchman told officer
Henry Hatch that the French seces-
sionists will take civil action against
Oficer John Stone for delivering the
canonical document to priest Berger
last week. Their grounds is that officer
Stone was defrauding the mail in so
doing, and that he can be prosecuted.
Their intention was stated for getting
up a purse to hire a brilliant attorney
to push the case. AS a pointer it might
be well to inform them that there is
no need to go to any expense, as they
have but to notify the postal authori-
ties. who get paid for looking after
such matters.
officer Hatch says he supposes he is
in the same boat, but SCOTS at the idea
of the secessionists. Rev. III. j. Wrenn
has a copy of the document, which he
will read at ST. Joseph's church tomor-
row.
The small attendance at the demo-
cratic caucus last night settles almost
beyond a doubt that the democrats viii