/ Loosed From Intellectual Slavery £^ ,43 /
Can a Roman Catholic Priest Be Sincere? How Free Exercise of Thought Is Curbed B y RE V . A R IST ID E M A L IN VERN I
early imbued' with these principles: “The Church is thé infallible organ of truth.” I was taught that “ a funda mental principle of the Catholic religion is that the Church is infallible.” It has always been so. It shall always be so. I was assured through a most skillful and unscrupulous manipulation of Scriptural texts that; “ To believe the Catholic Church is to believe God Him self.” “ To understand a single text of Scripture, contrary to the interpretation of the Church, is to incur the guilt of heresy, and consequently eternal damna tion.” Now you can clearly see how the youthful mind, so easily moulded, will never attempt to contradict the teach ing of the Church and of her instructors. Everything they say will have the value of the very Word of God. The thinking powers of human mentality are thus not only impaired, but entirely gone. This is precisely the aim of the Roman Church. Not unlike all of the unhappy young men, who have to pass through the training of the seminary, this was my mental attitude. The sim ple asking of a question that is not in unison with Church’s authority and power, or is even in some measure dis cordant with the philosophical or theo logical system of the professors, is con sidered a crime. I remember that once I made a plaus ible objection to , some particular ex planation of my professor of theology and the first thing I knew was an order, issued by the president of the seminary, absolutely forbidding any and every public objection in school. How then could I escape from the iron chain that
WAS a Roman Catholic priest, ordained in 1894 by Bishop Jeremiah Bonomelli, of Cre mona, Northern Italy. Ap
pointed at once as assistant pastor at Cassano d’Adda, in 1895, I was pro moted to be professor of the Italian language and oriental history in the local seminary, and became editor of a Roman Catholic newspaper called “ 11 Vesseillo” (The Banner). My last ap pointment in the Roman Communion was to the pastorate of Fiesco. In the_ first years of my ministry I did all my work in perfect good faith, 'because I knew nothing except what I had been taught by my church instructors. The question could be at once raised: Is it possible that an intelligent being, devoting twelve years of study in col lege and seminary, could keep himself for so many years faithful to the Roman Church, and to all her superstitious, ridiculous and anti-Christian practices? Can a priest be in good faith? Are there any priests in good faith? Yes, and I was one of them. I must confess that it is very difficult for a Protestant, grown up breathing the air of liberty, to understand the position and the mental attitude of a priest or of a student for priesthood. The Roman Church with her magis terial art knows very well how to chain the intellect and stiffen the soul. The principal and fundamental aim of, the instructors in a Catholic seminary is to create in the minds of the pupils the deepest impression of the „infalli bility and of the absolute authority'of the Church, and the Pope. The minds of the pupils are very
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