Letters to Cardinal McClosky.
Some time ago we noticed these Letters written by "Father O'Connor," of the Independent Catholic Church of New York. The following is the report by a New York religious paper of a lecture given by Mr. O'Connor in that city. It is full of interest in its presentation of facts concerning his experience in, and knowledge of, the Roman Church:— At a crowded service of the Independent Catholic Church in this city, the pastor, the Rev. James A. O'Connor, preached from Acts 26:4, 5, 22, and 23. Applying the text to the subject of the discourse, which was, "My life as a Roman Catholic priest and my present position," he said that for the words Jerusalem and Jews he would substitute Ireland and the Irish, and for the word Pharisee in the fifth verse he would substitute Roman Catholic. These verses well expressed his position as a young Irishman and a Roman Catholic priest. His family and friends were of old Roman Catholic stock, and even the strictest of the adherents of that church. From his twelfth year he was destined for the priesthood by his parents as the most exalted position in life. A Roman Catholic priest was, as it were, a mediator between God and man, and the treasury of heaven could be opened only by the priest for the laity. No higher position in this world, therefore, could be conceived than that of the priest who is the only medium known in that church for the prayers of the people to reach the throne of grace. In his family was a venerable priest, the speaker's grand-uncle, Father Batt O'Connor, parish-priest of Milltown, County Kerry. The speaker's own nephew was recently ordained a Roman Catholic missionary priest, and other near relatives, male and female, were priests and nuns. Trained up amid such surroundings, his manner of life from his youth was after the strictest sect of the Roman Catholic religion. Having made the preparatory studies in the Diocesan Seminary in Killarney, the delightful home of his early life, he proceeded to France and studied philosophy and theology in the great Seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris. As a young man he was filled with zeal for the salvation of souls, and, as he considered there was an abundance of priests in Ireland, he resolved to make America the scene of his priestly labors, as his countrymen were spreading over this new land by thousands every year. That he might be more thoroughly prepared for his ministry, he spent some time in the Seminary of St. Francis, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then entered St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, which is conducted by the same society of priests who have charge of the Sulpician Seminary in Paris. He was ordained sub-deacon and deacon in the seminary chapel in Baltimore, in 1871, and six months afterwards was ordained priest in Chicago, by the late Bishop Foley. He began his priestly life in the city of Chicago, and for eight years he labored in the ministry of the Roman Catholic priesthood in that city and other parts of Illinois. He faithfully tried to fulfill his duties as a priest, offering masses for the people, hearing confessions, attending their sick calls, ministering to all their spiritual wants, and taking a kindly interest even in their temporal affairs whenever he, as pastor, could help and benefit them. Lest, while preaching to others, he should be a cast-away himself, he observed, in his own person, all the duties required of a Catholic and a priest; he said his mass every morning, went to confession every two weeks, paid daily visits to the parochial schools, and in every way was a live, active, zealous young priest. The example of older priests around him, which was not always good, had no effect upon him, and he continued for eight years, bravely working for the Irish Roman Catholic people, until he found that, as regards the moral elevation of his people and the influence of Christianity in their lives, his labors were in vain. Looking back from his present position, he thanked God that he retained his good character and reputation through all his ministry. He had seen priests around him become intemperate through sheer recklessness and despair. Many of the priests of the Chicago diocese, while he was among them, were hurried into early graves from dissipation brought on by the tyranny and despotism of this hideous ecclesiastical system,—a system which makes them slaves until their hearts are broken, and they find what they consider a relief in sensual excess. Like many other priests around him, Father O'Connor began to see that the Roman Catholic Church was not all she professed to be. His observation led him to see a lack of fruit in his ministry and in that of his brother priests. If, he asked himself, the Roman Catholic Church was the church Christ established on earth, with which he promised to abide forever, why did not the people who had such great faith in that church show in their lives more evidence of their Christian profession? As a priest, he was continually handling sacred things, and giving them to the people who had a full and perfect faith in them and in him; yet he never experienced conversion of heart in his own person, nor did he see any evidence of it in any one of the thousands to whom he ministered. He gradually lost faith in the sacraments which he was giving to the people, the mass, the confession, the eucharist, the extreme unction, and the other means of grace that the Roman Catholics so liberally used. Recognizing that he was in a false position, he resolved at all hazards to free himself from the deplorable state of hypocrisy in which he saw so many other priests spend their lives. Accordingly he went to Cincinnati in May, 1878, where he obtained literary employment, and thence to Boston. From there he came to New York and, after his conversion to Christ, organized the Independent Catholic Church, in conjunction with other priests who had also renounced the teachings of the church of Rome. The following is the opening address of the Letters to the Cardinal. We shall give further extracts from this book, the author having kindly given us permission to use as much of it as we choose. Sir: I address you in a reasonable and respectful manner, to call your attention to some matters of the deepest importance to all who believe in God and wish to serve him. You are the head in this country of an organization that claims to be the only true church of Christ. There are other religious societies that make the same claim, but you say they are heretical, and that yours is the only genuine one containing the whole truth. Until a few years ago I was an active worker in that organization, and exercised to the full capacity the power that some of our population suppose a priest to possess. You must concede that only a small proportion of the people of this country believe in such power. Yet their number is so considerable that you and 6,000 other priests find it very profitable to humor them in their delusion. It is known of all men that the class of people that believe in you and your system of religion are the least intelligent of the population. Here and there throughout the country an educated and refined man or woman will be found who believes in this system, but they are very few indeed, and they could well dispense with your ministrations. But the common people, the working people of the country, need to be uplifted by some means from the sinful lives that they are leading. You say that you and your church can do it if they will come to you. They have been coming to you and your predecessors for centuries, and why do you not do it? If you possess the power of reconciling poor sinners to their offended Creator, why do you not make good your claim by using it with effect?