CATHOLICISM IN MEXICO

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 27, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 17.

CATHOLICISM IN MEXICO.

SOME have held that Protestants have no excuse for carrying on missionary operations in Catholic countries. The following from World Wide Missions shows that there are no fields more needy:—

Indulgences.

Indulgences, which so fired the zeal of Martin Luther against the Roman Church in the sixteenth century, are bartered on a wide scale in Mexico. In front of the Church of Santo Domingo, in the city of Puebla, there is a cross mounted upon a stone pedestal, upon which is inscribed in Spanish:—

Ten thousand years of indulgences for each one who, in a state of grace and before this cross, shall repeat five times the words of the Lord's Prayer, and hail Mary with glory in memory of the ascension of Jesus Christ.

The above translation was made on the spot by Dr. Borton, who knows Spanish perfectly. It is estimated that the form required can be repeated four times an hour, so that one hour's service before this cross would lay up indulgences for forty thousand years, and twenty-four hours would secure nine hundred and sixty thousand years. This certainly offers an opportunity for dealing in futures that would delight the soul of a Wall Street broker.

A drawing of the Virgin's shoe is used in Mexico for the purpose of securing indulgences. Within the lines drawn for the bottom of the shoe is the following:—

This is the exact measure of the foot of the most holy mother of God in her infantile age as taken from her own shoe, which is venerated with great devotion in the convent of Lareto, in the kingdom of Italy, in which city is preserved her most holy house, brought miraculously by the hands of the angels from Jerusalem. Pope John XXII. conceded three hundred years of indulgences to those who kissed three times this measure and recited three Ave Marias. Said indulgences were confirmed by Pope Clement VIII. in the year of our redemption, 1603. We have no prescribed number, and indulgences can be granted as many times as are wished by the worshipers of the most holy Virgin Mary, and they may be applied to the souls in purgatory. It is permitted for the greater glory of the queen of heaven and earth to make other copies of this measure, all of which have the same indulgences.

Raffles.

Raffles for souls are still practised on a large scale. The following is a literal translation of an item that appeared in the El Pais in Puebla, Mexico, Nov. 3, 1899:—

In a parochial church of St. Joseph, to-day, were celebrated solemn funeral honors and twenty masses in behalf of the faithful departed who drew the prizes in the spiritual lottery of said church. The mass was sung by Licentiate D. Manuel Diaz Calderon, and the choir loft was occupied by a magnificent orchestra directed by the choir master, Obueros.

In company with Dr. John W. Butler, I visited the parish church at El Oro, on the walls of which, in a conspicuous place, was posted a written document, of which the following is a translation made by Dr. Butler, whose knowledge of Spanish is well known:—

List of the dead who drew prizes in the mass which was said in the raffle for souls which took place Oct. 31, 1903, in the parish church of El Oro.

Then follows a list of twenty-three names of deceased persons who drew prizes, to which the signature of the parish priest, the Rev. Amilio Penpobre, is affixed. These raffles are still widely practised in Mexico.

Penance.

Penance in the forms practised when the power of Rome was supreme and undisturbed in Mexico, while less open and general than formerly, has not been discontinued by any means. The instruments of torture are still in use. The disciplinas are applied to the naked flesh. Samples of these disciplinas brought from Mexico by the writer can be seen at any time at the Missionary Office. These self-tortures are practised not only in old Mexico, but also in New Mexico, in the United States.

Mexican 'Disciplinas,' Wristlet and Scourge Used by Self-torturing 'Penitentes.'

A writer in the New York Evening Post, March 12, 1904, says:—

Up in the secluded mountain valleys, where few or no white settlers have moved in, Holy Week was observed with all the solemn, fanatical barbarity of old. There were processions of men almost naked, whipping themselves with cactuses, soapweed, and other scourges which made their backs a mass of raw flesh and running blood. . . . We were off at one side, and at first were inclined to make light of the punishment, as they could not hit themselves hard, raising the whip with both hands over their heads, and bringing it down on their backs with a jerk of the wrist. At last a turn of the procession brought them close.

Then we saw that the backs of the fifteen men thus doing penance were literally raw and running with blood. Their scourges were made of the soapweed, and as they hit their backs they gave a quick upward pull which bedded the thorn in the flesh and tore off the skin and the flesh with it. When a man relaxed his self-punishing zeal for a moment he was urged on by the old men and the women.