The Priest, The Woman and The Confessional | Page 2

said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater
abominations that they do.
14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD'S house
which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for
Tammuz.
15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O Son of man? turn thee
yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.
16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and,
behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and

the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the
temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they
worshipped the sun toward the east.
17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O Son of man? Is it a
light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations
which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence,
and have returned to provoke me to anger; and, lo, they put the branch
to their nose.
18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither
will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet
will I not hear them.
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
THE STRUGGLE BEFORE THE SURRENDER OF WOMANLY
SELF-RESPECT IN THE CONFESSIONAL.
* * * * *
There are two women who ought to be the constant objects of the
compassion of the disciples of Christ, and for whom daily prayers
ought to be offered at the mercy-seat--the Brahmin woman, who,
deceived by her priests, burns herself on the corpse of her husband to
appease the wrath of her wooden gods; and the Roman Catholic woman,
who, not less deceived by her priests, suffers a torture far more cruel
and ignominious in the confessional-box to appease the wrath of her
wafer-god.
For I do not exaggerate when I say that for many noble-hearted,
well-educated, high-minded women to be forced to unveil their hearts
before the eyes of a man, to open to him all the most sacred recesses of
their souls, all the most sacred mysteries of their single or married life,
to allow him to put to them questions which the most depraved woman
would never consent to hear from her vilest seducer, is often more

horrible and intolerable than to be tied on burning coals.
More than once I have seen women fainting in the confessional-box,
who told me, afterwards, that the necessity of speaking to an unmarried
man on certain things, on which the most common laws of decency
ought to have for ever sealed their lips, had almost killed them! Not
hundreds, but thousands of times I have heard from the dying lips of
single girls, as well as of married women, the awful words: "I am for
ever lost! All my past confessions and communions have been as many
sacrileges! I have never dared to answer correctly the questions of my
confessors! Shame has sealed my lips and damned my soul!"
How many times I remained as one petrified by the side of a corpse
when, these last words having hardly escaped the lips of one of my
female penitents, she was snatched out of my reach by the merciless
hand of death, before I could give her pardon through the deceitful
sacramental absolution! I then believed, as the dead sinner herself
believed, that she could not be forgiven except by that absolution.
For there are not only thousands, but millions, of Roman Catholic girls
and women whose keen sense of modesty and womanly dignity are
above all the sophisms and diabolical machinations of their priests.
They never can be persuaded to answer "Yes" to certain questions of
their confessors. They would prefer to be thrown into the flames, and
burnt to ashes with the Brahmin widows, rather than to allow the eyes
of a man to pry into the sacred sanctuary of their souls. Though
sometimes guilty before God, and under the impression that their sins
will never be forgiven if not confessed, the laws of decency are
stronger in their hearts than the laws of their cruel and perfidious
Church. No consideration, not even the fear of eternal damnation, can
persuade them to declare to a sinful man sins which God alone has the
right to know, for He alone can blot them out with the blood of His Son
shed on the cross.
But what a wretched life that of those exceptional noble souls, which
Rome keeps in the dark dungeons of her superstition! They read in all
their books, and hear from all their pulpits, that if they conceal a single
sin from their