The Irish standard., 1905-05-27
THE PENITENTES.
An Erratic Sect Falsely Alleged to be
Catholics.

An Erratic Sect Falsely Alleged to be
Catholics.
A short time ago there appeared in
the daily press an account of the cru
cifixiOn of member of the "Peniten-
tes" on Good Friday in Southern Colo
RADIO. Whether true or not it remains
a fact that there exists in New Mexico
class Of fanatics calling themselves
Penitentes and practicing acts of ex,
treme self-tortue.
Almost invariably those who write
of the Penitentes represent them as
Catholics. They are not, although they
persist in so claiming and in retain
ing Catholic practices. In some re-
spects the Penitentes resemble the
Flagellants, an organization which ap-
peared in 1860, in Perugia, Italy, and
soon came under prohibition because
of its religious excesses. A century
later the cult of zealots was revived
and again gave way to many eXtrav-
agances. They moved in large process
sions and lashed themselves on their
bare arms and shoulders with
scourges carried in their hands. They
were suppressed by Pope Clement VI,
but re-appeared about the time of the
Council Of Constantinople, which con-
demned their excesses in a vigorous
canon.
The Penitentes go even farther, ac-
cording to good authority. Recently
a Protestant minister, Rev. Delos E.
Finks, preaching in Ithaca, New York,
stated that the Catholics of New Mex
leo were all Penitentes-that they
march in professions and inflict tor.
ture upon themselves with whips
that groups of them travel on their
bare knees across a stony country, and
some lash themselves on the back un.
til they bleed. On Good Friday one
of their number is hung up on cross
and left to die" Such people as the
New Mexicans, he thought, ought not
to be admitted to statehood and
allowed to vote. These charges moved
Father Francis J. Hainhault, rector of
st. Patrick's church, Taberg, N. Y, to
make investigation: He wrote to Rev.
Father Maria, S. j., of Las Vegas, New
Mexico, whose answer throws new
light on the Penitentes. Because Cath
olics generally know little or nothing
about them, it is worth preserving.
Says the answer to which reference
is made:
1T is unhappily true that there ex-
lists in our midst class Of fanatics
calling themselves Penitentes, and
practicing, especially during the Holy
Week, such acts as are described in
the clipping you have sent me, except
the hanging of one of them on a cross
and leaving him to die. Some one may
have died on some occasion, accident
ally, but the death Is not intended.
These people pretend to be Catholics.
but they stick to their superstitious
practices more than to the precepts Of
the church, or even the command
ments of God for all that is known to
them. The church has done all in her
power to suppress them. Archbishop
Salpointe went even so far as to ex-
communicate some Of their lodges or
moradas, but to no purpose. They are
stubborn and would sooner leave the
church than the brotherhood.
"And no wonder, since they are
abetted in their resistance to eccles-
iastical authority by crafty politicians,
who need their votes on election days,
! and so exert themselves to keep them
together by every possible way. Some
of these public Office hunters, though
having a holy horror of scourging their
backs until they bleed, and avoiding it
most earnestly, yet join the ranks of
these deluded creatures and behave in
every other exercise of the order like
most fervent Penitentes. Nor is this
hypocritical trick peculiar to Mexican
Catholics () politicians. Oh, no.
We have seen an American Protestant
become Catholic and Penitente and
even Hermano Mayor, or Grand Mas
ter, we might say, in order to dispose
for years of the votes of the brethren
like unit.
$50 this plague does exist here. But
the Penitentes are no more the people
of New Mexico than the lynchers of
some southern states are the people of