The Priest, the Woman and the ConfessionalChiniquy, Charles Paschal Telesphore
Religion
The Priest, the Woman and the Confessional
Chiniquy, Charles Paschal Telesphore
Catholic Church -- Controversial literature -- Protestant authors; Confession
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had withdrawn his hand, and, thinking I had been deceived, I gave it no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?'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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