Letters to Cardinal McCloskey...

Preface To The Fourth Edition

Tlie Letters contained in tliis volume have attained a popularit}^ little dreamed of by theii author when he began their publication in a religious newspaper. TJie matter contained in them was prepai ed from .week to week for sermons and lectures in the line of his duty as pastor of the Reformed Catholic Church ; and it was throvvu together in this popular form for the purpose of teaching those for whom they were chiefly designed — the Roman Catholics, They have had a wide circulation, and have done much good to Protestants and Roman Catholics, in breaking down the walls of prejudice, bigotry and superstition. Many Roman Catholics have been enlightened by them regarding the deceptions of the Church of Rome, and have found the true way of salvation by faith in Christ, as it is pointed out in them in various places ; while many Protestants have had their hearts warmed by the tone of kindness and love for the poor victims of Rome's delusions that runs through them. If the questions at issue between the Word of God and the Church of Rome can be discussed in a friendly manner, and Protestants and Roman Catholics can be induced to ''argue" them in a neighborly and Christian way, the truth of Ood will prevail and the downfall of Rome is assured. As a help toward this desirable end this volume has done its part in the past, and it is hoped will do yet more in the future. May Almighty Cod bless this and every eflbrt that seeks only his glory and the salvation of souls, through Jesus Clirist our Lord. Amen.

J. A. O'C.

''Converted Catholic" Office,

No. 60 Bible House, New York, February, 1884.

By Transf Of ' P.O. Dept.

Mar 9,3 o jfp^INTRODUCTION.

The letters of the Rev. James A. O'Connor to Cardinal McCloskey, which are brought together in this volume, appeared serially in the JVew York Weekly WiinesSy and were, I have reason to believe, perused with deep interest by a large class of its readers ; as also by many Roman Catholic priests and laymen to wliom the papers were lent or sent by a number of subscribers to the Witness.

I may add that I read with pleasure these instructive letters, as they appeared, and hope that they will enlighten many readers in the future as they have done in the past on the questions at issue between the Church of Rome and the Bibk^

JOHN DOUGALL,

Editor *' New York Weekly Wltc ■•.*•

Contents

PAGE

Introduction 3

Letter

Letter I

Sir: — I address you in a reasonable and respeciful manner, to call your attention to some matters of tlie deepest importance to all who believe in God and wish to serve him. You are the head in this country of an organization that claims to be the only true Church of Christ. There are other •religious societies that make the same claim, but you say they are heretical, and that yours is the only genuine one containing the whole truth.

Until a few years ago I was an active worker in that organization, and exercised to the full capacity the power that some of our population sup- X:>ose a priest to possess. You must concede that only a small jjroportion of the people of this country believe in such power. Yet their numoer is so considerable that you andG,()()() other priests find it vei'y profitable to humor them in their delusion. It is known of all nuMi that the class of

A

FATnEK O CO>.^OK S LETTKllb people that believe in j^ou and your system of religion are the least intelligent of the population. Here and there throughout the country an educated and refined man or woman will be found who believes in this system, but they are very few indeed, and they could well dispense with your ministrations. But the common people, the working people of the country, need to be uplifted by some means from the sinful lives that they are leading. You say that you and your Church can do it if they will come to you. They have been coming to you and your predecessors for centuries, and why do you not do it? If you possess the power of reconciling poor sinners to their offended Creator, why do you not make good your claim by using it with effect ?

It is the belief among your followers that no one can approach the i^.lmighty except through the door of the Roman Catholic Church. You claim that you and your priests are the divinely appointed door-keepers of heaven. Why don't you pass in the poor people that come to you ?

What would be said and done to a man who had in his possession a secret remedy by which the life of our late President Garfield would have been prolonged for many years, and yet who would not impart this secret ? The whole civilized world would rise up as one man and denounce such a creature as the most infamous of beings. If he claimed to have such a remedy and found

TO CAKDIKAL MCCLOSKEY.

many persons to believe in him, and had been given an opportnnicy of testing it and yet failed to restore our beloved President to health, what a cry of indignation would go up from the whole land that he was only a quack in medicine.

My dear Cardinal, so many people have tried the remedy for their souls that you say you possess v/ithout any benefit to them, that their cry that you are a quack in religion is rising very high indeed. Your system has had a fair trial for many centuries. Honest though sinful hearts have come under its sway to be lifted up from the wretchedness and misery that sin has brought upon them. Young minds have been opened to its influence that they may receive light ; men and women in the prime of life have asked for more strength and help to resist the evil that presses around them, and old age, with its tottering steps, has knocked at the door to obtn;ii rest and peace. All have been disappointed, and many are now examining your claim to possess a remedy for the sins of their souls. I shall be their mouth-piece in exposing those claims.

J^MEs A. O'Connor.

FATHER O'CONNOn'S LETTEUS

Letter II

Sir: — As we are strangers personally I beg to introduce myself. I cannot do so in a more concise manner than by submitting for your perusal the substance of a lecture I delivered in this city soon after I left your Church. It is a report taken from a religious paper published in this city: —

At a crowded service of the Independent Catholic Church in this city, the pastor, the Rev. James A. O'Connor, preached from Acts xxvi, 4, 5, 22, and 23. Applying the text to the subject of the discourse, which was, " My life as a Roman Catholic priest and my present position," he said that for the words Jerusalem and Jews he would substitute Ireland and the Irish, and for the word Pharisee in the fifth verse he would substitute Roman Catholic. These verses well expressed his position as a young Irishman and a Roman Catholic priest.

His family and friends were of old Roman Catholic stock, and even the strictest of the adherents of that Church. From his twelfth year he v\^as destined for the priesthood by his parents as the most exalted position in life. A Roman Catholic priest was, as it were, a mediator between God and man, and the treasury of heaven

TO CARDINAL MCCLOSKEY.

could be opened only by the priest for the laity. No higher position in this world, therefore, could be conceived than that of the priest who is the only medium known in that Church for the prayers of the people to reach the throne of grace. In his family was a venerable priest, the speaker's grand-uncle, Father Batt O'Connor, parish priest of Milltovvn, County Kerry, The speaker's own nephew was recently ordained a Roman Catholic missionary priest, and other near relatives, male and female, were priests and nuns. Trained up amid such sarroiiadings, his manner of life from his youth was after the strictest sect of the Roman Catholic religion. Having made the preparatory studies in the Diocesan Seminary in Killarney, the delightful home of his early life, he proceeded to France and studied philosophy and theology in the great Seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris. As a young man he was filled with zeal for the salvation of souls, and, as he considered there was an abundance of priests in Ireland, he resolved to make America the scene of his priestly labors, as his countrymen were spreading over this new land by thousands every j^ear. That he might be more thoroughly prepared for his ministry, he spent some time in the seminary of St. Francis, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then entered St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, which is conducted by the same society of priests who have charge of the Sulpicinn SiMuinnry in

10 FATUER O'CONNOR'S LETTERS

Paris. He was ordained sub-deacon and deacon, in the seminary cliapel in Baltimore, in 1871, and six months afterwards was ordained priest in Chicago, by the late Bishop Foley. He began his priestly life in the city of Chicago, and for eiglit years he labored in the ministry of the Roman Catholic priesthood in that city and other parts of Illinois. He faithfully tried to fulfil his duties as a i:)riest, offering masses for the people, hearing confession, attending their sick-calls, ministering to all their spiritual wants, and taking a kindly interest even in their temporal affairs whenever he, as pastor, could help and benefit them. Lest, while i)reaching to others, he should be a castaway himself, he observed, in his own person, all the duties required of a Catholic and a priest ; he said his mass every morning, went to confession every two weeks, paid daily visits to tlie parochial schools, and in every way was a live, active, zealous young priest. The example of older priests around him, which was not always good, had no effect upon him, and he continued for eight years, bravely working for the Irish Roman Catholic people, until he found that, as regards the moral elevation of his people and the influence of Christianity in their lives, his labors were in vain. Looking back from his present position, he thanked God that he retained his good character and reputation through all his ministry. He had seen priests around him become intemperate tlirougli sheer recklessness and despair. Many of the priests of the Chicago diocese, while he was among them, were hurried into early graves from dissipation brought on by the tyranny and despotism of this hideous ecclesiastical system: — a system which makes them slaves until their hearts are broken, and they find what they consider a relief in sensual excess. Like many other priests around him, Father O'Connor began to see that the Roman Catholic Church Avas not all she professed to be. His observation led him to see a lack of fruit in his ministry and in that of his brother priests. Tf, he asked himself, the Roman Catholic Church was the Church Christ established on earth, with which he promised to abide forever, why did not the people who had such great faith in that Church show in their lives more evidence of their Christian profession ? As a priest, he was continually handling sacred things, and giving them to the people who had a full and perfect faith in them and in him ; yet he never experienced conversion of heart in his own person, nor did he see any evidence of it in any one of the thousands to whom lie ministered. He gradually lost faith in the Sacraments which he was giving to the people, the mass, the confession, the eucharist, the extreme unction, and the other means of grace that the Roman Catholics so liberally used. Recognizing that he was in a false position, he re-

12 PATHEK 0'C0>:N0K'S LETTERS

solved at all liazards to free himsell' from the deplorable state of hypocrisy in which he saw so many other priests spend their lives.

Accordingly he went to Cincinnati in May, 1878, where he obtained litei'ar}^ employment, and thence to Boston. From there he came to New York and, after his conversion to Christ, organized the Indej^endent Catholic Church, in conjunction with other priests who had also renounced the teachings of the Church of Rome.

Thanks be to God, the people were coming in vast numbers to hear the simple doctrine of salvation through Christ alone preached by those who had been priests of that Church which was cheating the souls of her votaries and keeping them in a state of degradation, superstition and idolatry.

James A. O'Connor.