The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1912-09-26
ROmanism in Its Home

owns all the old Roman churches in
Italy except st. Peters.
A third fact is the superstitions
practiced in Rome today. Take, for
example, the Scala Santos, the holy
stairs. 1t is claimed that they were
the steps that led up to the hall
way of Pilates hall in Jerusalem,
and were trodden by the feet and
consecrated by the blood of Jesus.
| visited those stairs and read in the
entrance the following: can indul-
gence of nine years, applicable to
the souls in purgatory, is granted to
those who perform this exercise
with q cOntrite heart. His Holiness,
Pope Plus X, by an autograph re-
ceipt of February rs, 1908, granted
plenary indulgence in perfect appli-
cable to the souls in purgatory and
to be gained by any one who, medi-
tating on the Passion of our Blessed
Lord, ascends on their knees, the
holy stairs" I saw those deluded
souls climbing those stairs. They
had never heard the voice from
Habakuk that spoke to Martin Luz
Their on those very steps saying,
A grosser superstition is that of
the Bambind in the AraeoeH. 1t is q
statue of the "Divine Infant" carved
in olive wood from Gethsemane in
the fifteenth century by a member of
the franciscan order and placed in
the church for veneration. A pray
er to that image is formulated and
by decree of Leo XIII, January 18,
1894, zone hundred days induI-
gence once day applicable to the
souls in purgatory" The image is
borne to the rooms of the sick,
where it is supposed to work mira
cles 0f~healing. A lady informed me
that she went to see the Bambind
two weeks ago and was told to re-
turn later, as the baby had been ia
ken to visit sick child. Upon be-
ing healed, you are expected to make
an Offering to the Bambind. It is
the most gorgeously decorated statue
in the world. Thousands of dollars
probably millions in gold, dia-
monds and precious stones have been
hung upon it. If one had told me
that intelligent people practiced such
humbUggery l would have asked for
CHIubuCS
with my own eyes. Do you wonder
that Edward Gibbon was a skeptic;
that he accounted for the growth
Of Christianity upon a natural hypo-
thesis, and that he saw nothing of
the spiritual in the church? It was
the church Of Rome that he knew
and from which he received his i'm
presSions of Christianity, while sit
ting upon the steps leading to the
present chapel of the Bambind on
the 18th of October, 1854, the idea
of writing the decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire" first entered his
mind.
Once more, the Roman Catholic
church in Rome is conspicuous for
it's glazing inconsistencies and con-
tradictions. One million dollars are
being spent repairing the ceiling of
one cathedral, while children beg
bread under the shadow of the cross.
One may look upon the worlds most
costly churches, adorned by the az
lists brush, and the sculptor's chi5eI
and he may hear piteous poverty and
gaunt hunger crying in the streets.
Inconsistencies are portrayed in
their works of art exhibited in the
temples. Papal infalllbility is a
Catholic dogma Celibacy is the re-
quirement of all priests. Bear these
statements in mind and visit with me
the church Of the Capucian Monks.
Here we see the Dragon, by Guilds
REM. 1t represents Pope Barbara