The Priest, the Woman and the Confessional. Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy
It is simply an act of supreme stupidity on the part of the Protestant, as well as Catholic public, to suppose, or suspect, or hope, that the generality of the priests can stand that trial. The pages of the history of Rome herself are filled with the unanswerable proofs that the great generality of the confessors fall. If it were not so, the miracle of Joshua, stopping the march of the sun and the moon, would be a childish play compared with the miracle which would stop and reverse all the laws of our common fallen nature in the hearts of the 100,000 Roman Catholic confessors of the Church of Rome. Were I attempting to prove by public facts what I know of the horrible depravity caused by the confessional-box among the priests of France, Canada, Spain, Italy, England, I should have to write many big volumes in folio. For brevity's sake, I will speak only of Italy. I take that country because, being under the very eyes of their infallible and most holy (?) Pontiff, being in the land of daily miracles, of painted Madonnas, who weep and turn their eyes left and right, up and down, in a most marvellous way, being in the land of miraculous medals and heavenly spiritual favors, constantly flowing from the chair of St. Peter, the confessors in Italy are in the best possible circumstances to be strong, faithful, and holy. Well, let us hear an eye-witness, a contemporary, an unimpeachable witness about the way the confessors deal with their penitent females, in the only holy, apostolical, infallible (?) Church of Rome.
The witness we will hear is of the purest blood of the princes of Italy. Her name is Henrietta Carracciolo, daughter of the Marshal Carracciolo, Governor of the Province of Bari, in Italy. Let us hear what she says of the Father Confessors, after twenty years of personal experience in different nunneries of Italy, in her remarkable book, "Mysteries of the Neapolitan Convents," pp. 150, 151, 152: "My confessor came the following day, and I disclosed to him the nature of the troubles which beset me. Later in the day, seeing that I had gone down to the place where we used to receive the holy communion, called Communichino, the conversa of my aunt rang the bell for the priest to come with the pyx.[2] He was a man of about fifty years of age, very corpulent, with a rubicund face, and a type of physiognomy as vulgar as it was repulsive.
"I approached the little window to receive the sacred wafer on my tongue, with my eyes closed, as it is customary. I placed it upon my tongue; and, as I drew back, I felt my cheeks caressed. I opened my eyes, but the priest had withdrawn his hand, and, thinking I had been deceived, I gave it no more attention.
"On the next occasion, forgetful of what had occurred before, I received the sacrament with closed eyes again, according to precept. This time I distinctly felt my chin caressed again; and on opening my eyes suddenly, I found the priest gazing rudely upon me, with a sensual smile on his face.
"There could be no longer any doubt: these overtures were not the result of accident.
"The daughter of Eve is endowed with a greater degree of curiosity than man. It occured to me to place myself in a contiguous apartment, where I could observe if this libertine priest was accustomed to take similar liberties with the nuns. I did so, and was fully convinced that only the old left him without being caressed!
"All the others allowed him to do with them as he pleased; and even, in taking leave of him, did so with the utmost reverence.
"'Is this the respect,' said I to myself, 'that the priests and the spouses of Christ have for the sacrament of the Eucharist? Shall the poor novice be enticed to leave the world in order to learn, in this school, such lessons of self-respect and chastity?'"
Page 163, we read, "The fanatical passion of the nuns for their confessors, priests, and monks, exceeds belief. That which especially renders their incarceration endurable is the illimitable opportunity they enjoy of seeing and corresponding with those persons with whom they are in love. This freedom localizes and identifies them with the convent so closely that they are unhappy when, on account of any serious sickness, or while preparing to take the veil, they are obliged to pass some months in the bosom of their own families, in company with their fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. It is not to be presumed that these relatives would permit a young girl to pass many hours each day in a mysterious colloquy with a priest, or a monk, and maintain with him this continual correspondence. This is a liberty which they can enjoy in the convent only.
"Many are the hours which the Heloïse spends in the confessional, in agreeable pastime with her Abelard in cassock.
"Others, whose confessors happen to be old, have in addition a spiritual director, with whom they amuse themselves a long time every day, tête-à-tête, in the parlatorio. When this is not enough, they simulate an illness, in order to have him alone in their own rooms."
Page 166, we read:—"Another nun, being somewhat infirm, her priest confessed her in her own room. After a time, the invalid penitent found herself in what is called an interesting situation, on which account, the physician declaring that her complaint was dropsy, she was sent away from the convent."
Page 167:—"A young educanda was in the habit of going down every night to the convent burial-place, where, by a corridor which communicated with the vestry, she entered into a colloquy with a young priest attached to the church. Consumed by an amorous impatience, she was not deterred from these excursions either by bad weather or the fear of being discovered.
"She heard a great noise one night near her. In the thick darkness which surrounded her, she imagined that she saw a viper winding itself around her feet. She was so much overcome by fright that she died from the effects of it a few months later."
Page 168:—"One of the confessors had a young penitent in the convent. Every time he was called to visit a dying sister, and on that account passed the night in the convent, this nun would climb over the partition which separated her room from his, and betake herself to the master and director of souls.
"Another, during the delirium of a typhoid fever, from which she was suffering, was constantly imitating the action of sending kisses to her confessor, who stood by the side of her bed. He, covered with blushes on account of the presence of strangers, held a crucifix before the eyes of the penitent, and in a commiserating tone exclaimed—
"'Poor thing! kiss thy own spouse!'"
Page 168:—"Under the bonds of secrecy, an educanda, of fine form and pleasing manners, and of a noble family, confided to me the fact of her having received, from the hands of her confessor, a very interesting book (as she described it), which related to the monastic life. I expressed the wish to know the title, and she, before showing it to me, took the precaution to lock the door.
"It proved to be the Monaca, by Dalembert, a book, as all know, filled with the most disgusting obscenity."
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