p. 7 | Vesuvius and Roman Catholic Superstition

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 31, 1906

Vesuvius and Roman Catholic Superstition

The Roman Catholic religion as a system of superstition and salvation by works, was made manifest by the recent eruption of Vesuvius. As on former occasions when scourged by some destroying visitation, the inhabitants of the stricken territory sought to stay the catastrophe by processions bearing images or crucifixes. The statue of St. Anna was brought out to stop the flow of lava which was descending upon Boscotrecase. Religious processions marched through the streets of Naples. A photograph in Collier’s Weekly shows one of them bearing a cross with the implements of the crucifixion (saw, hammer, etc.), and an image of the Madonna, draped to protect it against falling ashes. Another view in the same publication shows the church of St. Anna at Boscotrecase surrounded and filled with lava. The description of the eruption states:—

The lava came on in a stream five meters high and from forty to three hundred meters wide. On reaching the town it split and encircled it, entering from either side. . . . It would sullenly encircle a house, burn all the woodwork, and finally, by its own tremendous weight, push it into a crumbling heap. It would rush into a well with a sharp report, and shoot a geyser of water thirty meters high over the bystanders. With a grim irony one of the streams took its way into the very church of the futile St. Anna herself.

If Rome had her way in the United States, these superstitious exhibitions would be seen in American cities. Instead of the sensible, decisive measures taken at San Francisco to prevent anarchy and save property and life, there would have been, under Rome’s rule, processions of hysterical people carrying images and calling upon the “saints” to stay the earthquake and the fire. The papal authorities might stop such foolish and useless exhibitions by a word if they chose to do so; but they do not choose.