By H. A. Breard
How a certain "shooting parson" of Texas can stand in the pulpit day after day and harangue his credulous listeners with tales of barbaric cruelty and oppression as practiced by the Catholic church, and at the same time callously murder an unarmed citizen who had come to protest certain statements of the parson, is inexplicable.
But the same condition is true of any southern Protestant congregation. Knowing nothing about Catholicism as a religion, they characteristically fear the worst, and are content to believe the wildest tales, whether from the lips of the most illiterate minister, or from the sanctimonious lips of the demagogue. For an office-seeker to openly denounce the Catholic church as an intolerable and dangerous influence to the well-being of our government adds a comfortable quota of votes to his total.
Certain inspired, ignorant, and hard-shelled Protestants are continually blaring about that well-known and highly over-estimated octopus, Romanism, whose Italian tentacles are tearing at the best in one hundred per cent. Americans. They give us the most wonderful pictures, painted by perverted imaginations, of the pernicious practices of the Roman Church. Of these blatant scoffers, none have ever studied the Catholic faith or have been within a church of that persuasion. If they have, their distorted imaginations, having a greater cash value than the truth, are brought into play. They feed the intolerant that which they desire — alarming falsehoods.
Having been raised in the fold of the Catholic church, serving an early apprenticeship as altar boy, and having broken away from the Catholic church, as I have from the orthodox doctrines of all others, I can smile at the petty fear which seems to grip the minds of good Baptists and Methodists when the name Catholic is mentioned. Some seem to have the idea that once a person is allied with the Catholic church, certain forces are brought into play which will keep him forever from gaining his freedom. The only force used to keep me, or any other of the Romanist faith within the church is that of prayer and family persuasion.
Some non-Catholics are laboring under the delusion that the Pope is all powerful with the Catholics; that he wields a temporal influence superior to that of the rulers of the countries in which the Romanists happen to find themselves. This is without foundation. The Pope is all-powerful spiritually, and that alone. He lays down rules of doctrine, and interprets the laws of the Church. But even here he is hampered. He has as much, if not more, precedent to guide him than the Supreme Court of the United States. Catholics believe that he is infallible only when he speaks ex cathedra, that is in matters pertaining to the Church. Of course they do not believe that he is incapable of making mistakes and doing harm in his own private life. There is too much evidence to the contrary for them to hold such an idea.
As to temporal matters the Pope's powers are nil. Without doubt some would like to wield such power, but they realize that discretion is the better part of valor. The popes in ages past did supercede the rulers of the various countries, but this was due to force of circumstances — the invasion of the barbarians and the weakness of the petty states that sprang up after the collapse of the magnificent Roman Empire. A large number of the barbarians had been partially catholicized, and they stood in awe and fear only before the successors of St. Peter. After acquiring this power, the rulers of the Holy See were loath to give it up, but those days are past.
The last vestige of their temporal grandeur crumbled beneath them when the Papal States annexed themselves to the newly formed Kingdom of Italy. The inhabitants were good Catholics, but they voted to go over to Italy. They saw themselves primarily as Italians, secondarily as Catholics. As a protest against this action, the popes have never since left the Vatican grounds.
Some are opposed to the use of Latin and the ritualistic form in the Catholic service. Both have logical foundations. The former is used because it is a universal link. The Latin language ties all Catholic churches together into a great whole, makes all services uniform, and carries the congregation back to the days of the founding of the Church. Then, too, the great Supreme Being possibly understands Latin as well as any other language. It is to Him that the prayers are directed.
The ritual is that to which the Church owes its great strength. After all, religion is a thing of the heart and not of the mind, and what appeals more to the heart and carries one to greater ethereal heights than an imposing ritualistic mass interspersed with beautifully sentimental music? The poor sin-burdened worshipper seems to be raised above this sordid plane during such a ceremony. Protestants, also, realizing the power of music to charm, introduced it into their gatherings.
There is a common belief that the Roman Church forbids the reading of the Bible. This is erroneous. A certain portion of the Bible is read each day at the celebration of the mass, and the reading of Bible history is encouraged. The Holy Book, and prayer books taken from it, may be found in almost all Catholic homes. The Church requires, however, that its version be read, because Catholics are under the impression that their church is the true church and consequently that the Catholic version of the Holy Scriptures is the true version.
Some suspect and many are absolutely sure that the confessional is a means of extorting money from the sinner. This may occur. I will not flatly deny it. But all during my connection with the Catholic Church, I have never had the subject of money raised while in the confessional nor have I ever heard of it being extracted as a condition precedent to absolution. Some priests may do so, but I do not believe that extortion is nearly so prevalent in the Roman Church as in others. The priest has no incentive to extract money. He receives sufficient for his upkeep; the remainder of the money going into the church fund. And any one who knows the Catholic faith realizes that it is not within the power of the priest to forgive. He is merely an intermediary. The priest asks God to forgive the sinner if he is sorry for the sins that he has committed. If the sinner should not be repentant, the confession is of no avail and the sins are all the more magnified.
Some are of the opinion that Catholics think that all marriages outside of the Catholic Church are adulterous. This is not the case. Protestant marriages are considered valid because the Romanists believe that Protestants have not seen the true light, and are not responsible for what they do. This is the explanation given, but in truth, force of circumstance causes the Roman Church to recognize them. It realizes that its members would not follow it in a strict construction. However a Catholic who is married by other than a priest is considered as living in sin, at least by the officials of the Church. Only the more bigoted members give it a second thought. The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is a holy sacrament conferred upon man by God, and only one of God's true representatives is capable of performing the ceremony. Upon this theory no union may be liquidated; the knot has been tied in Heaven. The parties may separate, but only the death of one of them will dissolve the matrimonial hitch.
Purgatory seems to be a stumbling block for many. The logic of the matter seems to me to be very simple. It is merely a midway station between Heaven and earth where those who have not suffered sufficiently for the sins that they have committed may do a little extra duty, in military parlance. Only those who are absolutely clear of sin may enter into the presence of the Almighty. Hell would be overpopulated if those guilty of lesser sins were consigned to that station, so the Church invented an intermediate place. Of course if one is guilty of a mortal sin Satan takes immediate possession of his soul on its passage from its earthly abode, the body. Then too, Purgatory is an excellent means for the Church to save old hypocrites who stage last minute repentances. They have not suffered for their sins on earth. It is necessary for them to suffer somewhere. Purgatory is an excellent place. Masses are said for those in Purgatory in order to strengthen them in their suffering there to attain the Ethereal Presence. The masses are said at a dollar a piece if the relatives are able to pay, but they are said gratuitously upon request. The receipts from such masses go to pay off the indebtedness of the local church. No doubt it is this practice that gives rise to the assertion of outsiders that the priest pretends to have the power to pray sinners out of hell. The Catholic Church teaches that once in hell there is no redemption ; prayers will do no good. Aside from this, the priest can't pray for any one. One must pray for himself. The priest only prays that God grant the sinner strength to fight sin and to listen to his feeble prayers.
Indulgences have been a bone of contention ever since the days of Martin Luther. Their sale was a prime means of raising funds in his time, but this was done away with by the Counter-Reformation. They are now obtained by prayer and good works. If one gains an indulgence, a certain amount of temporal punishment due for his sins are remitted. Remission for sins committed in the future was never granted. Some zealous prelates, however, may have led some credulous communicants to believe to the contrary.
What part does statuary play in Catholic worship: Are they idolaters? By no means. I do not know what the ignorant believe, but I was taught along with many others that the statues arc only material reminders, a tangible representation used to bring to mind the holy one of whom one is seeking a favor. The saints prayed to are not on an equality with God. They are requested to intercede with God, that is to pray to Him, in favor of the repentant sinner, and to ask Him to grant strength to the hitter to carry on in the monumental struggle against sin. The Virgin is not considered the equal of her great Son, but she heads the list of saints. She is often requested in prayers to intercede with her Divinely Conceived Child in favor of some heart-sick sinner who seeks grace. Is this not natural? Are not concessions on this earth often obtained through the intercession of mothers? The beads or rosary that Catholics use are merely counting boards upon which they keep track of prayers said in a certain sequence.
The Church of Rome demands celibacy of its clergy because it believes that an unmarried priesthood will devote itself wholly to the work of saving souls; that there will be no conflict of family ties and church duties; and that there will be no disruption in the congregation, due to the strange makeup of the usual preacher's wife. Doubtless these are reasons enough, but since celibacy is against a law of nature, it is perhaps against a law of God.
From the October 1926 issue of Carolina Magazine, published in Chapel Hill by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Literary Societies of the University of North Carolina.
archive.org/details/carolinamagazine19261927/page/n19/mode/2up Editor’s Note: H. A. Breard was a senior at the University and was on the staff of The Magazine in 1925. From the front page of The Tar Heel, UNC-CH Student Newspaper, Oct. 9, 1926 newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073227/1926-10-09/ed-1/seq-1/
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