The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1900-01-18
Captain Heating and the Philip
pine Priests.

Editors Herald Would you please
give me little space in your paper
to make few criticisms on Captain
Heating 'sIletter which appeared some
time ago in the Fremont Gazette.
meant to pay my respects sooner but
the Captain was out Of town, and
thought / would wait until he would
return. He says of the Philippine
clergy:
SIT has been the custom for CEN
turtles, which still exists, that for
sum of money agreed to by the pur-
chaser the parents could dispose of
their daughter to any man, married
or single, to be slave or for any
purpose whatever. This law is said
to have been inaugurated by the
Spanish clergy for their own con-
venience, marriage being prohibited
among them"
This is an infamous libel on the
Catholic priests in the Philippines,
and Captain Heating knows it. There
was never a country yet where the
clergy of the Catholic church ever
thought of anything of the sort. l
am almost thirty'years priest of the
Catholic church and have never be-
fore read or heard of any such charge
made against the order to which
belong. 1t is gross insult to every
priest of the church of which am a
member, and take it as intended for
me as well as for the Philippine clergy.
1t cannot be otherwise. I am bound
by the same law of celebacy as they
are and they as we'll as | knew before
they became priests what that law
required of them and accordingly
prepared themselves to obey it. If
the Spanish clergy had state law
passed for their convenience because
they are not married, then of the
same order should wish similar law
passed; will the Captain say this to
my face. He had better not.
This charge of violating the vows
of celebacy by the priests of the
church is just nineteen hundred years
old. But it has never yet been proved
to be true. To be sure priest here
and there sometimesIfalls from grace
as Judas did. A foolish priest will
sometimes give up his church and
take to himself a wife as Father
Martin Luther did four hundred years
ago, but that is only an exception,
and the exception only establishes
the fact that celebate life can be
lived as we'll as any other life. l have
often noticed since became priest
that the enemies of the church have
always manifested great antipathy
for the celebate life. They seem to
really hate it. x The unchaste seem to
think that celebacy is always con-
slant chastisement on themselves and
as a consequencelEthey will by every
means strive toSdiscredit it.
1t is not wiselor proper in Captain
Heating or any other man to be max
ing or retailing charges against 9TH
ers which might be retorted in one
way or another. suppose the Captain
led an exemplary single life while in
1 L
could do that,7 do not see what
necessity the Spanish clergy were
under that they should have law
passed enabling them to become legal
adulterers.
On the othershand to charge the
Catholic clergy, sor any part of them,
that they cannot live Icelebate life
is to charge byl direct implication
the vast numbers of single men and
women of this country that they are
not leadinglcorrect lives. The Cap
tain must be careful in his puplic ex
pressions.
But Capt. Keating's address or let
ter does not hang together very well.
In this, as insaRformer letter, he ex-
hibited rare facultyEfor contradict
ing himself. siHe.says in!another part
of his letter:
"Their domestic life compares fav-
orably with the highest civilization,
and illegitimacy is practically un-
known"
| Think of this, readers of THE HER
AID! The Filipinos.possess high
grade of civilization, and yet this has
been given them through the govern
ment and teaching'of an adulterous
clergy! Again,t 'illegitimacy is prac-
tically unknown" How do you &C
count for this, Captain, in view of
the law which you say the clergy had
passed for their convenience?
Here is another specimen of the
Captains consistency;
SIN every home, high and lowly,
are the pictures of Christ, the Ma
donna and child and sometimes both,
showing the soul aspires to some
thing more than earth, another
world, freedom from the things
that trouble and perplex amid their
sojourn here"
This represents very virtuous and
pious people, with souls turned away
from the false pleasures of the world
and aspiring TOT the happiness of
Heaven. How such results can be
produced by the teaching'of wicked
and adulterous priests only Captain
Heating can tell.
After describing the beauty and
grandeur of the Catholic churches
and affairs in theiPhilippines, Captain
Heating says:
"Surely these were goodly places,
but like so many of the works of man,
the trail of the serpent is over them
ALL"
This is an old way of the enemies
of the church for insulting everything