[We here at Former Catholics For Christ are appalled at the historical and present day treatment of little children by Roman Catholic hierarchy. Because of freedom of speech, many are now made aware of the abuse of children. In Ireland alone, Rome has had to pay millions to 3,000 orphans who were sexually molested by Catholic priests. As if abusing other people's children were not enough, we wanted to share with you the abuse of one little nine-year old daughter of priest Tamaro. To hide his shame, he starved his own flesh and blood till she died. The above illustration is an actual picture taken when the Protestants discovered her starving little body.]

As long as Cuba's soil is inhabited by Cubans the awful deeds of Priest Tamaro will ring in the ears of fond mothers. This priest was never married, and at the same time it is known that lie was the father of twentythree children, and still he was recognized by the Romish Church as a fit person to look after the spiritual welfare of the human race.

Shortly after the American forces had triumphantly entered Cuba it was learned that Priest Tamaro had been and was still one of the most active priests in the Island in throwing impediments in the American's way in adjusting the Island to American methods, and in this way had particularly attracted the attention of American officers. God bless Americans, they are all naturally Protestants, so these officers took a special delight in investigating this priest's record, and one evening after dark sent word to Tamaro that unless he surrendered to them and ceased his meddling that they would deal with him in a manner that would forever impress his mind with American earnestness. Nothing more was

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heard of this priest in any way, and just seventeen days from that date, these officers visited this priest's residence, and imagine their surprise to find it in ashes with a number of human bones scattered among the ruins. This aroused their curiosity and a search was instigated, and in a cave a few, yards from where his residence had been situated, they found his daughter, a child of about nine years of age, who had been fastened in without food and but little water, and was so wasted in flesh that she weighed but nineteen pounds and only lived a few hours after being brought into the fresh air. The search was continued and they were both astounded and astonished to learn that these bones that were found in the ruins of his burned house were those of natives who had mysteriously disappeared from the island, and were supposed to have either joined the Cuban patriots or the American army, but from investigation it was learned to a degree of certainty that this priest had been secretly working through the orders of the officials of Spain, and enticing poor trusting Cubans into his residence, from which they were never again seen. Investigation failed to locate Tamaro, and it is supposed that lie was smuggled out of Cuba, and is now, perhaps, serving the Pope by presiding over some church of Spain.

If the fallacies of the doctrines of the Church of Rome are correct, relative to the priest having the power to forgive sins, then Tamaro, who must have been guilty of a number of crimes, and even taking human lives, could easily be absolved from all of these innumerable sins by simply entering the confession box of some brother priest. Americans, have you ever stopped and permitted yourself to look at this proposition in a candid, sincere manner? If the priest has the power to absolve sinners from their

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sins, is it not a license to transgressors to continue in their sins? for how easy it is to defraud your neighbor, or strike down an enemy in cold blood, and then flee to a nearby priest, and have the stain washed from your soul. Is it possible that the American people will continue to allow such heathenish doctrines to be promulgated?

The Bible tells the devout inquirer after truth that "The Son of man hath Power on earth to forgive sins." The Romish Church tells its devotees that the priest, good or bad, a Christian or a sinner, hath power on earth to forgive or withhold the forgiveness of sins when and to whom he pleases. It is the business of this chapter to place before the reader in Rome's own language the exact doctrine of the Church upon this subject. We proceed with the doctrine of priestly absolution as taught by the Church to the young in the catechism, that is now taught in many public schools in the United States at the expense of the State. We turn to "Catechism of Catholic Doctrine," as taught in all Catholic schools, and on Page 32, lesson 17, we read:

Question: How do you know that the priest has the power of absolving from sins committed after baptism?

Answer: I know that the priest has the power of absolving from sins committed after baptism, because Jesus Christ granted that power to the priests of his Church.

Question: How do the priests of the Church exercise the power of forgiving sins?

Answer: The priests of the Church exercise the power of forgiving sins by hearing the confession of sins and granting pardon for them as ministers of God, and in His name.

The Catholic doctrine of priestly absolution is further set

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forth in a book called Defense of Catholic Principles, by Priest Demetrius A. Gallitzin, and published by the Catholic Publication Society, No. 9 Warren Street, N. Y. On page 46 we read: I

We believe that the ministers of Christ, those whom we call bishops and priests, have received the power of forgiving and retaining sins. We believe that confession is necessarily deducible from the grant of the above power. It cannot be conceived how a minister of Christ is to exercise his power of forgiving or retaining sins, unless lie has an exact knowledge of the sinner's mind, etc.

So important do we deem this damnable paganism to the full and clear understanding of the Romish doctrine, we think it best to trouble the reader with other, and, if possible, more authoritative testimony. On page 182, Catechism of the Council of Trent, we find the following:

Many prayers accompany the form not because they are deemed necessary, but in order to remove every obstacle which the unworthiness of the penitent may oppose to the efficacy of the sacrament. Let then the sinner pour out his heart in fervent thanks to God, who has invested the ministers of His Church with such ample powers. Unlike the authority given to the priests of the Old Law, to declare the leper cleansed from his leprosy, the power with which the priests of the New Law are invested is not simply to declare that sins are forgiven, but, as ministers of God, really to absolve from sin; a power which God himself, the author and source of grace and justification, exercises through their ministry.

They will, also, serve to place in a clearer point of view, the duty of those who desire, and desire every one should, to evince

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their grateful recollection of so estimable a favor. Humbled in spirit, the sincere penitent casts himself down at the feet of the priest to testify, by this humble demeanor, that lie acknowledge the necessity of eradicating pride, the root of all the enormities which lie now deplores. In the minister of God, who sits in the tribunal of penance as his legitimate judge, he venerates the power and person of our Lord Jesus Christ; for in the administration of this, as in that of other sacraments, the priest represents the character and discharges the functions of Jesus Christ. Acknowledging himself deserving of the severest chastisements, and imploring the pardon of his guilt, the penitent next proceeds to the confession of his sins.

The great efficacy of penance is, therefore, that it restores us to the favor of God, and unites us to him in the closest bonds of f friendship.

There is no sin, however grievous, no crime, however enormous, or however frequently repeated, which penance does not remit. "If," says the Almighty, by the mouth of his prophet, "the wicked do penance for all his sins, which lie hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment and justice, living he shall live and shall not die; I will not remember all his iniquities which lie hath done."

To return to penance, to it belongs, in so special a manner, the efficacy of remitting actual guilt, that without its intervention we can not obtain even hope for pardon. It is written: "Unless you do penance, you shall all perish." These words of our Lord are to be understood of grievous and deadly sins, although, as St. Augustine observes, venial sins also require some penance. "If," says he, without penance, venial sin could be remitted, the daily

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penance, performed for them by the Church, would be nugatory." The faithful are most earnestly to be exhorted to study to direct their contrition specially to each mortal sin into which they may have the misfortune to fall: "I will recount to thee," says Isaias, "all my years in the bitterness of my soul;" as if he h ad said: "I will count over all my sins severally, that my heart may be pierced with sorrow for them all." In Ezekiel, also, we read

"If the wicked do penance for all his sins, he shall live." . In this spirit St. Augustine says: "Let the sinner consider the quality of his sins, as affected by time, place, variety, person." In the work of conversion, however, the sinner should not despair of the infinite goodness and mercy of God; he is most desirous of our salvation; and, therefore, refuses not to pardon, but to embrace, with a father's fondness, the prodigal child, the moment he returns to a sense of his duty, and is converted to the Lord.

Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make yourselves a new heart. To the woman caught in adultery, the Redeemer Himself imparts the same lesson of instruction: "Go thy way and sin no more;" and also to the lame man whom he cured at the pool of Bethsadia: "Behold ' thou art made whole, sin no more." That a sorrow for sin, and a firm purpose in avoiding sin for the future, are indispensable to contrition, is the dictate of unassisted reason.

Not only does the Church of Rome teach that popes, bishops and priests have the power of forgiving sins, but it goes further, and teaches that bad priests in mortal sin exercise the same power. In Fredet's history, published in New York in 1886, on page 511, we find the language:

It is true, a few among the popes gave great scandal to the

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Christian world in their private character and conduct, but it ought to be remembered at the same time, that, through a special protection of Divine Providence, the irregularities of their lives did not interfere with their public duty, from which they never departed. The beneficial influence of sacred jurisdiction does not depend on the private virtue of the persons invested with it.

But hear what the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, in its wisdom and piety, says. We refer you to page two, session XIV, chapter VI:

But as regards the ministry of this sacrament (priests forgiving sins), the holy Synod declares these doctrines to be false and utterly alien from the truth of the gospel, which perniciously extend the ministry of the keys to any other soever besides bishops and priests. It (the holy Synod) teaches also that even priests who are in mortal sin exercise, through the virtue of the Holy Ghost, which was bestowed in ordination, the office of forgiving sins, as ministers of Christ.

On page two, Canon X, it says:

If any one sayeth that priests who are in mortal sin hath not the power of binding and losing let him be anathema (accursed).

From the time a Catholic child is born, the benighted influences of Catholicism at once begins to throw her ignorant and befuddeling influences about it, and these same influences are continued until the child arrives at the years of responsibility, or at the age when it is supposed they have intelligence enough to discern between good and evil, but by that time a child brought up under the influences of Catholic parents, and has had the mystifying influences of the Church hanging about its childish life, is

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utterly unable to exercise its normal intellectual faculties in regard to what is right and wrong, for the impressions that the mind first receive at home will tenaciously cling to that child, and nothing less than a herculean struggle will free that mind of these impressions, and bring it back to an intelligent conception of facts and not mere fancies. This is why Catholicism takes the child in its swaddling clothes, for they have long since learned that the quickest and easiest way to make "full grown fools," is to make "little fools," and they have also learned that it is easier to mold the mind of an infant, than that of a grown person. I make the assertion that no where on earth is there such dense ignorance found as in a strict Catholic school, whose scholars have never been permitted to breathe the free and intellectual atmosphere of a public school. I defy the world to successfully contradict this statement. Who will dare undertake to refute it?