Joseph McCabe

“ I confess that I have taken some complacency in my moral character after that summary of my advocatus diaboli; but it is pitiful to see that a clever, experienced, and humane priest can entertain the thought that a man will be damned eternally for such trivialities. His whole attitude is a significant effect, as in the preceding case, of their system; and it is only as effects and illustrations of that system that I offer these details of my secession. ”

“ Thus there are few laymen who know of more than one secession, and who are prepared to admit a serious and conscientious withdrawal from their communion. Indeed, there are few priests who know that there have been more than one or two secessions from their ranks, so carefully are such events concealed whenever it is possible.
The secrecy is, of course, not the effect of accident, for such incidents are not devoid of public interest, and are matters of very deep concern to the Catholic body. ”

“ SECESSION
The Catholic layman has usually a fixed belief in the absolute integrity of his priesthood. He may entertain a suspicion of avarice or of indolence or worldliness with regard to certain individuals, but in point of faith and morality he is quite convinced of the invulnerability of his pastors. ”

“ During my clerical days I had attracted some suspicion by defending the possibility of honest secession from the Church, and especially of bonâ fide scepticism; it was now my turn to be sacrificed to the system which I had resented. It has been explained that the Church is prepared to go to any length to prevent scandal, and the recognition by the laity of an honourable secession of one of the clergy would be a serious scandal; hence little scruple is shown by priests in discussing the character of a former colleague. In my own case I believe that nothing very offensive has been invented ”

“ Hence the ecclesiastical policy is to conceal a secession, if possible, and, when it is made public, to represent it as dishonest and immoral. My own position would not for a moment be admitted to be bonâ fide; the gentler of my colleagues seem to think that a ‘light’ has been taken from me for some inscrutable reason, whilst others have circulated various hypotheses in explanation, such as, pride of judgment, the inebriation of premature honours, &c. ”

“ At wide intervals a few may be found who are acquainted with a secession, but the report is usually confined with great care to the locality, and the Catholic press—proof against all the ordinary temptations of the journalist when the honour of the Church is at stake—carefully abstains from disseminating the unwelcome tidings. ”

“ They were books and instruments which friends had given me on various occasions (every friar accumulates a quantity of such presents, which remain his, for all practical purposes) : legally (for canon law is happily not authoritative in England) they were my property, and I had no hesitation in thinking myself morally justified after my conscientious labours, and, especially, since most of the donors were hardly aware of the college’s existence. ”

“ In both cases it was evidently the policy of the fraternity to conceal the misdemeanour from the laity: they remained priests, and for the credit of the Church and the prestige of its clergy their faults must be covered over at all costs. But when a priest really secedes from the Church the opposite policy is naturally followed; for the credit of the Church and the confusion of its enemies the seceder must be placed in as unfavourable a light as possible. ”

“ Many of them are names which were once in honour in the Church of Rome, and are now equally and more widely honoured in Unitarian pulpits or in other spheres of life: many of them being men of recognised literary or scientific ability.
The number is not, however, large in proportion to the number of English priests. The circumstances of their education, literary restrictions, and subsequent occupation are not of a nature to unsettle their minds very seriously. But a still more serious circumstance is the peculiarly painful nature of a breach with the Church of Rome. ”

“ Such a violent disruption of the past is the lot of every seceder from Rome. Add to it the practical difficulty of re-commencing life in mature age, and some idea will be formed of one great force that helps to preserve the integrity of the Roman Catholic priesthood. ”

“ You will never find any friends so true as the old ones [?] and it is to be regretted that you did not, in the dark hours of doubt and temptation, seek help from those whose prudence and experience might have saved you from wrecking your life by this false step. ”

“ I fear that this pride may have contributed to bring about the withdrawal of the light. What may also have helped is that bitterness of spirit you have sometimes manifested towards others, which is not according to the dictates of charity. ”

“ He commences by saying of my words (in describing the treatment I had received) , 'the perverse and degrading sentiments of Roman Catholics' that they are 'as insulting as they are false'; he then defends Father David about the scandal over the books, on the ground of my vow of poverty, adding that he did not think me consciously unjust, or unmindful of my duty to the college, or hypocritical. Then he continues:
'And now having made my protest, let me say, my dear Father, that you were quite right in thinking that I am your sincere friend and brother. . . . ”

“ When the superior of a monastery with which I was connected left its walls, he took 50l. with him ‘as a temporary loan’: that circumstance did not excite any particular discussion, and certainly there was no question of prosecution for theft. Similarly, another friar ran away with about 200l. ”

“ So much I learned by accident, but neither the canon nor my own colleagues would give me the slightest information about him. I never heard of him before or since, and know nothing of his character: I merely mention the incident as an illustration of the concealment of secessions.
And not only is silence enjoined, but deliberate falsehoods [1] are told with regard to seceders. One of our superiors at Forest Gate seceded or ‘apostatised.’ My colleagues deliberately told our parishioners that he had gone on the foreign missions ”