Fifteen years behind the curtains...

Dedication

To all who have the moral courage to express their thoughts and sentiments about religion; to all who reverence the written word of God, the Bible, and hold it above the traditions of men ; to all who humbly desire to know the truth and stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ has made us free,

This book is respectfully dedicated by the

AUTHOR.

Introduction

For fifteen years' experience, as a priest, in the Roman Catholic church, I am in a position to know that the doctrines and practices stated in the following chapters are of faith, and cannot be disclaimed by the highest ecclesiastical authority. There was a time, when, singular to say, I myself believed in these doctrines and practices. They seemed all the time unreasonable, but my pledge to believe in the power of the church to save and to damn, to bind and to loose persuaded me to imagine that there was some invisible power behind the altar and its sacraments that could save me. As years passed by in the ministry my faith on that point grew weak. When I began to study the Bible, faith in all the Romish doctrines began to vanish. It seemed the year before I took my last farewell of Rome that it was not only possible, but probable, that I was in the wrong boat for the port of Salvation, and that if I did not leave, and steer another way, never should I enter the harbor of life everlasting.

I took no steps rashly, nor did I leave the Roman Catholic church without praying fervently over the first doubts. It took months and years to find the light after the first experience of being a lost man in a lost craft. Thank God it has been found.

I would refer the reader to some of my "first thoughts " stated in the " Faith Once Delivered Unto the Saints," written shortly after my coming out from the church.

Grass does not grow in a day, nor is a man converted from Romanism in a week.

I believe different people have different experiences, as they have different minds and various ways of using them. Some may be moved to think by seeing some palpable and disgusting absurdity in the church, while others see the same and look on it as a virtue.

But let me state here that with hundreds of minor causes that put me to think of the corruption of the

Romish church, and of salvation through the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, was chiefly the holy life of Protestant Christians when compared with my fellow citizens, the Roman Catholics. One Sabbath morning, before saying mass for my congregation, I was sitting on the stoop with a brother priest. The Presbyterians and Methodists and Baptists were passing along to their respective places of worship. Being pretty close to the sidewalk I got a fair look into the countenances of the church goers. Like a flash of lightning it dawned upon me that these good people had some standard of authority and faith higher than mine. The contrast, even in their walk and demeanor with those of my people on the opposite side of the street, was convincing. Turning to the other priest I said; "Father, these people are true Christians." " What makes you think that?" "Well, there is some holiness of life and devotion about them I cannot express. They seem to be on God's business, while the conduct of my people going to church is not edifying." "Oh," said he, "it is pride; they are as black as the ace of spades." By " black," he meant bigoted. But to convince him of this error I demonstrated how it was the other way; that our people were prejudiced, and refused to subscribe money to the erection of their houses of worship in that place, while they, the Protestants, never refused to contribute to the building of our churches. " Yes, but," said he, " our people know that there is but one true church, and that Protestant churches are false, heretical, and that they as Catholics have no permission to help heresy."

During all this time 1 had ample evidence that we priests were living too far from God, from our people and not far enough from ourselves. It became then apparent, as never before, that we had the wrong model — that we were patterning after men, instead of patterning after the Savior of men, Jesus CJarist.

I saw in our clergy too much sell-righteousness, a domineering spirit, all of which was put down by the

Scripture, I was reading, as "an abomination to the Lord." I saw too much deception among brother priests, lying, intemperance, ignorance, superstition, love of money, wine and the opposite sex, to entitle them to the exclusive appellation of the only true ambassadors of Jesus Christ. By some associating mth Protestant ministers of the various evangelical churches, at the same time, I became convinced that we were the ones who were in the false system, and were plodding along the wide path to perdition.

For the most part I found the Protestant clergy characterized by the spirit of prayer, able to pray at any moment without a book. I found them men of honor, temperance, education, able to come out before the people and discuss the principal issues of the day. I found them pure and chaste in expressions in daily life, and thus inferred that they had purer thoughts and purer hearts than our men of the priesthood, who seemed to take delight in living in the mire.

I learned that when they said " no," they meant it; and that when they promised it was fulfilled. These may seem small things to some, but they were among the leading causes to bring me from darkness to light, from sin to holiness.

Do not think for a moment that I denounce priests and people as all wicked. No! Many of them are exemplary, and live far above the teachings and practices of their church. We are not fighting Roman Catholics in this book, but their worst enemy — the ecclesiastical system of Rome. The system makes the people what they are. If they are found disloyal to the gospel of Christ and to the institutions of our country, I do not blame them So much as I do the Roman chain that is around the neck of the orthodox Romanist.

We should not keep silent about this blighting system. The people of the United States ought to see that it is a national plague, and that its principles are incompatible with Republican institutions. Tax-payers must be taught that its aim is to enrich Rome by gathering into its coffers the fat of the land, and giving out nothing in return but dry rot.

Our attitude towards the system cannot be friendly. That would encourage it and co-operate with its inroads on true religion. No enemy should be encouraged and protected. Why should he? Is the midnight thief and highway robber worthy of respect and defense? Certainly not. Neither is the blasting and tyrannical system of the Roman Catholic church worthy of any one's defense. Love and kindness shown the hierarchical organization in this country is nothing less than cruelty to Roman Catholics themselves. Let us help Roman Catholics to see this. We must be bold, not cowardly. We may as well declare war now as at another time.

A fierce war has to be waged between Romanism and true Christianity, between sin and holiness. Those who would straddle the fence and pretend they have scratching to do on the other side are unworthy of notice. We can have no sympathy with them. They would barter the gospel of Christ, the Constitution of the United States and the public schools for Romish influence and the Romish dollar. Every one engaged in the conversion of Romanists will find these human stumbling blocks in every county, state and nation.

Some may say, especially Catholics, that their church is loyal to the gospel and to the institutions of America . But remember that if it can be shown that the church has been palpably disloyal to the word of God, and even to on6 of the fundamental laws and principles of the country, that is enough. The system found disloyal to one is disloyal so to all. But the following chapters will prove that the Roman Catholic church cannot be loyal to either the gospel or the institutions of the land.

Romanists must be instructed in the history of their church, and they cannot fail to -see how she has disclaimed doctrines which she has proclaimed hundreds of years ago. Instead of believing then that she is as firm as the rock in faith, they will be surprised to learn that she is as changeable as vapor and as mutable as the waves of the sea.

The system of Rome stands for a low standard of morality and citizenship. It keeps up a constant influx of an ignorant, unbelieving, superstitious and dangerous foreign element of immigration to this country. They come here to enlarge the bloated corporosity of the "man of sin," and be a menace to the best interests of the nation. They can hardly be adapted to the conditions of a Republican form of government. It is the worst on earth for them. They have been ruled by the whip and the iron rod, and do not know what liberty is.

Any man who believes that his church has power to exempt from the obligation of observing an oath, and absolve from the crime of perjury and murder, cannot ever be relied on for truth, faithfulness and allegiance.

With a fervent invocation of the Holy Spirit to enlighten the minds of Roman Catholics, and bless to them the reading of this work, the book is humbly sent forth on its important mission. Let every reader be a means of communicating its truth to at least one Roman Catholic, and thus aid us in the great work in which we are engaged.

If but one Roman Catholic may be brought to see the magnitude of the insult ofiered to Jesus Christ by imputing satisfaction and merits to the works of sinful men. If one can only be led to see the sacrilege and blasphemy of putting the merits of men above those of Christ's sacriQce on the cross. If one can only be moved by the Spirit to believe in God's word, which declares: *'And by him all that believe are justified from all things," and that '' God commendeth His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." (Rom. 5: 8.) If only one may be led out from the bondage of the papal system by reading this book to the liberty of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the author is well satisfied with the result of his labors. But with

God's grace multitudes will, after reading it, become disgusted with the corrupt dogmas, and will abandon them for the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. God grant that all my former friends of that church may know the truth as it is in Jesus, and be set free, is my earnest desire.

J. Donnelly.

Pittsburg^ May^ 1896.

CHAPTER I. Reasons Why I Left The Roman Catholic Chuech

1 — Because Roman Catholic Moral Theology teaches that her members may equivocate, dissemble, perjure, steal, and even murder, if it be for the good of the church.

2 — Because she has corrupted the Holy Scriptures, denied them to her people for ages, and left out the second commandment of God entirely from the decalogue, that her image worship might not appear so culpable and blasphemous.

3 — Because the law of the church teaches that if the priest learn in the confessional from his penitent that the latter is about to plot the burning of a city and the destruction of all the inhabitants thereof, he must say, if interrogated outside the confessional, that he knows nothing about it; and if in a court of justice, he is to confirm his statement by an oath.

4 — Because her worship of and praying to saints is unscriptural, unreasonable and absurd. For saints to hear the prayers of all Roman Catholics, it is necessary that they be in all places at the same time and be omniscient. But only one is ubiquitous and omniscient. He is able to see the motives of the heart and hear all supplications — God, the Almighty One. "For thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men.' '(2 Chron. 6:30).

5 — Because of the monstrous and idolatrous doctrine of the mass, in which she teaches that the priest consecrates the wafer into the flesh and blood of Christ, and presents him to thousands of people, whole and entire, in thousands of places at the same time. This seems to me contrary to Scripture, reason and all experience. We have no instance of where Christ when on earth was ever in mores than one place at a time.

When teaching in the synagogue he was not in the garden of Gethsemane. When in the temple, he was not walking with Mary and Joseph on the way from Jerusalem.

The Lord's Supper, of which the mass is a mockery, was not literal, but figurative of Christ's body. It was to be a commemoration. "For so often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." (1 Cor. 11:26.)

6 — Because she teaches that the sacrament of Baptism regenerates, makes people Christians and heirs of heaven. She, therefore, contradicts the Bible, which declares that we are justified by faith, and that faith and salvation is personal, and cannot be obtained by proxy.

7 — Because she teaches that the infant which dies without baptism shall never enter into the presence of God ; and on the other hand, that the highway robber, the blasphemer, gambler, drunkard, thief and murderer who may confess to a priest, and do penance, will possess the kingdom of heaven. Little children of whom Christ said, " Suflfer them to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven," think of these going into outer darkness while the bloodthirsty assassin goes to the Holy of Holies to enjoy the paradise of God forever !

8 — Because confession to a priest is immoral, indecent and contrary to the Scriptures which command us to go to God alone.

9 — Because auricular confession dwells on thoughts and uses language so obscene that if uttered outside in ordinary society both priest and penitent would be arrested and prosecuted for using obscene language.

10 — Because the confessional box paves the way for an involuntary celibate, and too often an intemperate man, to the moral ruin of his unsophisticated female penitent.

11 — Because the command of tlie~Apostle to " confess your sins, one to another," is violated by the priests, who insist on their enslaved victims to confess to them, but they themselves never in return kneel down and confess to the people.

12 — Because of her traditions and dogmas and bulls which contradict the word of God, and make it of no avail. There is no scriptural authority for any of her sacraments as she teaches them. Especially is this true of the five bastard sacraments: Confirmation, Penance, Extreme Unction, Ordination and Matrimony.

13 — Because of her perilous and wicked doctrine of " Intention," which teaches it to be lawful to steal if you form the intention of making restitution. According to that '* intention " you may take a neighbor's article, provided you have not the intention of stealing it. If afterwards you consume the property or lose it, the real owner can get nothing if you have not w^herewith to restore. In that case the law that obtains is : "Necessitas non habet legem;" that is, ''necessity has no law." He must put up with what he gets — nothing, on the principle of " what cannot be cured must be endured." But the thief rests at ease under that doctrine, in that he had not the "intention " of originally stealing the article, but just of using it for a time for his own use.

14 — Because no Roman Catholic is ever sure of salvation, as he is not certain of the priest having the right intention when baptizing him. If the priest had not the intention to do what Rome does, the baptism is null and void, and, consequently, all other sacraments are null. "If any one shall say that the intention of doing, at least what the church does, is not required in ministers while they administer the sacraments, let him be accursed." Council of Trent, Canon 10, De Sacramentis .

15 — Because a good and merciful God would not commit the salvation of souls to the intention or nonintention of an ecclesiastical body of men, who, for unholy living and impure lives are hardly equaled by any other class of notorious dinners .

16 — Because I found that nearly all the doctrines of Rome were unscriptural, and were never taught by Christ or his Apostles, or practiced by the early Christians.

17 — Because Rome teaches that to be saved it is necessary to belong to the Roman Catholic church. And Christ and his Gospel teach that salvation is by direct, personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36).

18 — Because the Church of Rome interprets most of the Scriptures in a literal, material sense, where Christ speaks in a figurative and spiritual sense.

19 — Because she impresses the people with a false idea of the word "Church."

20 — Because I saw and touched the instruments of the Inquisition, by which multitudes of honest Christians were put to a slow, heartrending death for the crime of being suspected of heresy. When I saw the tortures of "walling up," the "burning pile," the *' red-hot ovens," the deadly " pulley," the " iron virgin," the cold " water pressure" on the brain. When I obtained sufficient evidence that priests, bishops and monks who claimed to be the representatives of the meek and lowly Jesus, helped to apply the torch to the limbs of their fellow men, I shed tears, and prayed God to show me the way out from a system that strangled, burned and murdered.

21 — Because the confessional is blasphemy and a reproach to Jesus Christ, who invites the sinner to come to him for mercy. " If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 Jno., 1:9).

22 — Because priests violate the secrecy of the confessional in speaking to one another about the sins they hear in the confession in such a way that the listeners know to whom they refer.

23 — Because intoxication is the fufe,. rather than the exception, among all priests.

24 — Because of her idols and images, which are not only venerated, but worshipped. The blessed Apostle says : ''Flee from idols." (1 John, 5:21).

25 — Because she condemns marriage in priests, bishops and monks, and thus conflicts with the word of God, which says: "A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife." (1 Tim., 3:2.) And, "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife." (1 Cor., 7:2).

26 — Because of the church's unscriptural doctrine of Extreme Unction, which teaches the departing soul to settle its last thoughts on visible things, such as candles, oils, holy water, instead of looking to Jesus Christ, whose blood " cleanseth from all sin." (1 John, 1:7.)

27 — Because, no matter how holy Roman Catholics may live, and no matter how many good works they perform, the church gives them no assurance of heaven on their departure hence, but presents them with doubts, fears and the certainty of a burning Purgatory, even for the just, before they can enter heaven. With them there is no " This day thou shalt be mth me in Paradise."

28 — Because the church teaches that sprinkling infants regenerates them, and makes them members of the church, and children of God.

29 — Because, in the early Christian churches those only were baptized who believed. "Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized." (Acts ^: 38-41.)

30 — Because the church receives into her membership the unconverted, and baptiz(;s them, whereas in the church of Christ in all ages those only were baptized who were previously converted. Even the Apostle Paul was first converted and then baptized. " And he received his sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized." (Acts 9:18.)

31 — Because wooden instruments called crosses, also images of the virgin and saints, are retained, venerated and worshipped.

32 — Because the second commandment forbids the making of " any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them , for I am the Lord thy God."— Exod. 20: 3, 4, 5.)

33 — Because the church admonishes the people to have recourse to the intercession of the saints, and to venerate their relics ; and because the sacred Scriptures say : " There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." (1 Tim., 2:5.) "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." — John 14:6.)

34 — Because I believe that purity is a holier state than celibacy; but the church insists on celibacy for priests, deacons and bishops.

35 — Because enforced celibacy is radically wrong, and is contrary to the word of God. " A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine." (1 Tim., iii: 2,3.)

36 — Because in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper the church teaches that the flesh and blood of Christ is present in a material, carnal sense, and the Scripture says: " It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." (John vi: 63.)

37 — Because the church demands the people to go to the priest in the confessional to obtain pardon of sins, and the Lord Jesus Christ invites sinners to come to Him for forgiveness: " Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt.xi: 28.)

38 — Because the church makes the^^e its head on earth, whereas there is no head other than Christ Jesus.

" For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is head of the church." (Ephes. v: 23.)

39 — Because the mass is a fraud imposed on the implicit confidence of a credulous people, under pretense that it is the same as Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and that the priest's mass liberates the souls of the dead from an imaginary Purgatory. The word of God declares that Christ "ofiered one sacrifice for sins forever, iind then sat down on the right hand of God." (Heb. x: 11,12.

40 — Because the Romish church makes the Virgin Mary the refuge of sinners, the "gate of heaven," the *' comfort of the afflicted," the "morning star," the "health of the weak" and the " help of Christians."

41— Because the church's aim is to keep the people in intellectual, moral and physical slavery, and make them "hewers of wood and carriers of water" the world over.

42— Because an orthodox Roman Catholic owes allegiance to the ecclesiastical government of the pope of Rome, who teaches his superiority over, and above, all secular powers; and, therefore, cannot be a legal citizen to any civil government.

43 — Because a large number of the popes have been the most immoral wretches who ever appeared in human form.

43 — Because all the popes interfere with politics, and have been the greatest curses of the nations of the earth.

44 — Because the papacy teaches dogmas and human canons that contradict the teaching of Christ, and has persecuted unto death for conscience's sake.

45^Because Rome denies Jesus Christ to be our advocate, our redeemer and our Savior, by exalting Mary to be " our most loving Advocate " and " the protectoress of all sinners."

46 — Because the church has persecuted the Bible, discouraged its reading and study among the people, and recommends instead thereof the priest's prayer book and bishop's catechism.

47 — Because the church has failed to bringr the unconverted to a holy life. Her members live and die unhappy in mind and conscience, always looking for some help they never find.

48 — Because 1 have learned from long and careful experience that priests and bishops do not preach for the interest of Christ and his kingdom, but for Rome and the almighty dollar.

49 — Because the apostles and disciples of Christ never dressed in royal vestments — never said mass in Latin or in any other language — never permitted man^ woman or child to bend the knee to them in confession — never heard confessions at all — never despised marriage in priests or bishops, but blessed it and recommended it. as " honorable in all." They never used wine, holy water, candles, wafers, incense, agmis dei^ scapulars, medals, relics, or pocket Gods of any kind.

50 — Because the mass offers an opportunity to a large majority of priests to mock and blaspheme the Lord Jesus Christ by celebrating it in a drunken state.

51 — Because the church changes her doctrines so often that Catholics themselves for the most part do not know what their church really believes, or teaches.

52 — Because the Romish teaching is nowhere established by the Bible.

53 — Because I feel more secure to live by faith and the word of God than by traditions and the alleged infallibility of men.

54 — Because indulgences are held out by the church and are indirectly and directly procured by paying out of the pocket hard cash.

55 — Because Purgatory seems to me to be established not for the purpose so much of drawing souls fi'om the fiery pit, as for drawing the moneym)m the pockets of a credulous people.

56 — Because I firmly believe that it is of Pagan origin, and devilish in the extreme for man to adore the host.

58 — Because I believe that priests and bishops, instead of being vicars and ambassadors of the Holy One, are but microbes and human parasites, the farther from which we betake ourselves, the happier, holier and more successful in this life and the life to come shall we be.

59 — Because I found more wicked men and seducers among the Roman Catholic clergy than among any other class of men of equal numbers.

60 — Because, according to the Scriptural idea, the Roman church is no Christian church at all. All who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are of the Christian church, wherever found, and to them, and not to a hierarchical body of men is the commission given to preach and teach and to forgive trespasses against each other. To them is the promise made, and not to a priest or pope, that the Holy Spirit will abide with them all days to comfort, to teach, and guide to the consummation of the world.

60 — Because I am satisfied from history, and especially from my knowledge of the Bible, that neither Sts. Peter, Paul, John, James, Thomas, or any other follower of Christ did what the priests, bishops and pope of Rome do now.

61 — Because long experience has taught me that the church gives the people no equivalent for the immense sums of money she extorts from them.

62 — Because the church forbids a man to use his own reason, or be guided by the testimony of his own senses.

63 — Because I prefer to be saved by the free grace of the Lord and Savior, promised to all who will, than to risk my salvation by proxy and purchased grace of men who have none to spare, even for themselves.

64 — Because I will never give up a certainty for an uncertainty.

65 — Because I want to use my own brains that God has given me to beget knowledge to prove all things, <'and hold fast to that which is good."

^^ — Because I prefer to be condemned by the priest for rejecting his expensive salvation, than to be condemned on the last day by the judge of all the earth for rejecting free salvation purchased by the precious blood of Christ.

67 — Because I prefer to read the Scriptures and judge for myself by the aid of the Holy Spirit, though I be called a "heretic," a "turn coat" and "black sheep," than to receive the milk of the word from men who don't know it, and be called "a good, holy Roman Catholic."

68 — Because I deny the proposition of the church that there can be no good government on earth without the Roman Catholic religion.