Joseph McCabe

“ And if it is Catholic doctrine that it is better that all this ruin, being only material or secular, should take place than that you should tell the wife you were detained at the office when you were giving a little dinner to a stenographer, what ruin is not the Church prepared to sanction, or to cooperate in producing, rather than that tens of millions of folk should commit, or should persist in the mortal sin of apostasy with all its sequels? ”

“ The fundamental reason for this growth in modern times of what is properly called Popery -- not the growth of Romanism in the world, for there is no such growth, but of the cult of the Pope in the Catholic Church -- is just that spread of democracy which Rome hates so much. The Pope is the figure-head of the Italian hierarchy, which shares the vast wealth and prestige that the new Popery brings to Rome. ”

“ They talk vaguely about it being the business of the Pope or the Church to look after man's "Spiritual" or "eternal" interests; and they rub the dust into your eyes by telling you in the next breath that American civilization is based upon "spiritual realities." Make no mistake about it. They mean, when they tell the truth, just what Newman said, for that is the Catholic faith. Why, then, you ask, do we not hear Protestant apologists say things of this sort since they also believe in eternal torment or eternal bliss? ”

“ For the moment I am concerned only to point out that the most distinctive doctrine of the Roman Church, that concerning the Popes, the principal basis of the power of the Black International, is so demonstrably contrary to the evidence that the apologists, have to lie to their own people and to the general public about that evidence. Indeed, the literature they impose upon their own people -- we are bound to say "Impose" when they forbid them to read critics -- about this important early phase of their Church and its Popes is comprehensively untruthful. ”

“ Everybody knows that many of them do defy the Church and read modern books, without troubling to get the priest's permission and are healthily skeptical about much that the Church teaches. If you bear in mind that the Church does not merely forbid such reading but dogmatically teaches that it is a mortal sin like fornication, you see that these men and women, while professing to be members of the Church, must repudiate its authority, when it suits them, to say what is or is not a sin and thus reject a fundamental part of the creed. ”

“ Italy itself is too poor to give a comfortable living to the preposterous number of its bishops and priests, but Rome as the international center of the Church always redeemed the poverty of Italy, as far as the clergy are concerned, and this new glorification of the Pope everywhere, this blind adulation of his encyclicals and speeches, this pressure on the world-press to exalt him, have made it more profitable than ever ”

“ And for every woman or girl who sincerely wants guidance there are fifty who just love the intimate talk about sex that is permitted with the priest in the confessional; and, to crown the infamy, there is not a more transparently priest-made doctrine in the whole of religion than this sacrament of penance. That it promotes morals and reduces crime is bunk. The one object of it is to consolidate the power of the priest over the laity. ”

“ The evening service is optional to Catholics, but again the chief part of it is based upon this dogma. A consecrated wafer in a silver-gilt and glass receptacle, is exhibited amidst a blaze of candles and flowers for the adoration 'Of the people. This doctrine of the eucharist, in other words, is the chief source of the priest prestige -- he alone can create and handle "the Blessed Sacrament" -- and the possession of so unique and priceless a thing puts the Catholic faith incomparably higher than any other religion. ”

“ If these critical writers -- two Protestants and one Rationalist -- so candidly admit the triumphant progress of the Roman Church it must, the general public think, really have something of the unique nature and unconquerable spirit which it claims. ”

“ To talk about the intellectual impoverishment of his Church is superfluous, but for a man who accepts all this medieval trash to turn round on our age with its monumental intellectual and practical achievements and tell us that we are "Spineless" and "afraid of truth" is too funny to be a good joke. ”

“ I suppose this new encyclopedia is in the historical school of all American universities, and I wonder if any professor dare warn his pupils that, not only is the idea in itself too absurd to be put before an adult person, not only is Jesus described in the oldest portion of the earliest Gospel as convinced that the world would come to an end within fifty years, but that the historical influence and conditions which explain the evolution of the Papal power are as fully known as the causes of the feudal system or the Renaissance. ”

“ It is heresy and a moral sin in Catholic theology to say even in your own mind, as Protestants say in regard to their Lord's Supper, that there is just a special presence or influence of God in the consecrated elements. The doctrine of the Real Presence of which Catholic (domestic) literature talks so much, means that Christ's physical living body -- you remember that it "ascended" alive into heaven -- is present in every crumb of the consecrated wafer -- if one is badly made and a crumb falls off Christ is in it -- and every drop of the consecrated wine. ”

“ The mortal sin of heresy not merely to say but to believe in one's own mind that a dogma of the faith is not literally true. The amiable writers who speculate on the Church of Rome from without and think that it is just as easy for Catholics to take their peculiar doctrines figuratively as it is for members of the Episcopal Church do not know what they are talking about. ”

“ No "primacy" in any other organized religion has so disgraceful a record. If I have any readers of this who are not familiar with my earlier work I may assure them that I have covered the entire ground in those works and quoted the contemporary documents for each age, Some day I will get out a biographical catalogue of the Popes. The general public is today more grossly deceived than ever about the facts of Catholic history. ”

“ It is stern Catholic dogma -- and if any man professes to be a Catholic, and does not admit it he is not honest for he dare not openly say so -- that every human being inherits the eternal punishment imposed for the sin of Adam and Eve, and baptism is the one cleansing fluid for this liability. ”

“ It is significant that there are only two periods in the first three centuries when contemporary documents throw a light upon the character of the Popes and they (Victor, Callistus, and Damasus) are seen to be very far from saintly. But I need not repeat the facts even in summary. When catholics are told by their priests that their Church has been ruled by a long line of Holy Fathers, Vicars of Christ, except that for mysterious reasons God permitted "a few bad Popes" in the series, they are duped. The phrase "a few bad Popes," 'which occurs in all Catholic writers, is a constructive untruth. ”

“ The world wants or needs the truth -- facts. And the truth is, and every year of extension of my fifty years study of history makes it plainer, that the fabrication of these sacraments by the clergy of the Roman Church was followed by a more vicious general life in Europe than we find over an equal period of several centuries in any earlier civilization. ”

“ The net result is that the general public are grossly deceived about the largeness and growth of the Romanist body, and this makes them very receptive to Catholic propaganda of the broader kind: the sort of propaganda that does not make you eager to enter the Church and endorse its creed but disposes you to look upon the Roman Church as a really unique body and superior to other Churches. Skeptics of the last century, and far too many even in our time, had a theory that the Roman Church has a far better chance of survival than its rivals. ”

“ How in heck does a Catholic expect modern scientists, philosophers, or historian's to sit down and write serious criticisms of that bewildering tissue of puerilities and dupery? Even the modern astrologer or palmist puts up a better show. ”

“ I might make short work of the job and say that it is just supernatural magic and the priest is the magician, but, your Catholic friends would not admit that. It is fundamental to the whole Catholic system, yet all these pro-Catholic writers and journalists fight shy of it as nervously as they do of the chastity of a nun. The nearest thing to it in the world of reality is mana. The Melanesians, who are almost at the lowest section of savage life, believe that a mysterious power pervades nature and is especially stored in certain persons and objects. ”

“ But many feel it very difficult to believe that the Roman Church, which they thought they knew well, is capable of this conspiracy against civilization: that is to say, a conspiracy for their own end's, no matter how they define these, of the leaders of the Church with powers which, if they succeeded, would certainly wreck civilization as we know it. ”

“ Catholic doctrines, and especially this basic doctrine, can no more be fitted to modern psychology than the grass-skirt of some fat old Maori woman could be fitted on a slim blond stenographer. Catholic theology still talks about man's "free will" as the basis of moral judgment. Most of my readers will know that no modern psychologist even notices the antiquated belief in free will, and four manuals out of five say that there is no such thing as will. ”

“ It begins with the Gospels, which are said to show that Christ was God, and. that he founded a Church with twelve "apostles" as its cabinet- ministers and Peter as Premier or President. That is familiar. The unique Catholic Truth comes in at the next step. It is that if not a single Gospel had been written we should still know all about it. Tradition is the great thing, greater than the Gospel's; and, of course, the Church is the custodian and exponent of Tradition. This is that wonderful Catholic logic, which is so lacking in modern science. ”

“ The man who hesitates to admit that the supreme motive of the Black International is the protection and increase of its power and wealth, who is inclined to take the "spiritual" view of its activity therefore fails to understand that activity until it is too late, only to consult the historical facts. ”

“ But besides the larger wafer which the priest swallows -- often with much effort, for I can assure you that those "accidents" of the bread remain pretty tough in a dry throat -- he occasionally "consecrates" hundreds of smaller wafers in a separate vessel for the laity to receive in what is called communion. These are stored in that highly decorated safe which you will find in the center of every Catholic altar. That is why a lamp burns before it and the Catholic bends his knee on entering or raises his hat on passing a church. ”

“ Its creed is uniquely contemptible amongst the major branches of the Christian religion and more redolent of deliberate priestcraft than any other. "Can such a faith survive?" is the title given by an Angelican bishop to a series of sermons he gave on the theology of his Church. Yes, he said, by jettisoning half its dogmas, literally understood. But the Church of Rome survives, ravaged it is true but still massive, without the sacrifice of a line of its creed. How? To that question we must next address ourselves. ”

“ To the man in the street it probably seems that there is a gulf between the Catholic and the Protestant Church, but my readers know differently. Practically all branches of the Christian Church east of a line from Northern Yugo-Slavia to the Russian frontier of Poland agree entirely with the Romanists except that they scorn the Pope, allow married men to become priests, and differ on one insignificant detail of the doctrine of the Trinity. ”

“ It is enough that not one of us, from the new-born babe to the centenarian, will go to heaven unless he has been baptized. In America apologists dupe the general public by saying that it is no longer Catholic doctrine that "outside the Church there is no salvation." I have shown that this is false if by salvation is meant admission to heaven, but theologians are good enough to allow that baptism in Protestant Churches may be valid. ”

“ Holy Water is not a sacrament but is very valuable. It is water from which a priest has, with a pinch of salt -- I was never clear whether or not this was meant for the devil's tail -- and various incantations driven out the devil, and he so dreads it ever after that the Catholic makes lavish use of it in church; where, Catholic practice suggests -- women Still wear their hats to keep the devil from entering by their ears -- evil spirits are strangely numerous. ”

“ The world of the future was to be divided between those who admitted the exercise of reason on religious matters and would all become Rationalists and those who repudiated the application of reason and based their faith upon authority. ”

“ Baptism, Penance (Confession and Absolution) Confirmation, the eucharist, Holy Orders, Marriage, and Extreme Unction. And by what you may or may not choose to regard as a remarkable coincidence each of these channels is controlled and opened by a priest. You may, of course, get grace by praying for it, as the devil does not always give you fair warning to get official assistance. You may see a man drop a five-spot on the pavement before you, the sun shining through a girl's translucent skirt, an unexpectedly bold picture at the cinema, one of McCabe's books lying about . ”