A SERMON WITH A MORAL

Evening Star, Issue 14627, 25 July 1911, Page 4

A SERMON WITH A MORAL

I AN OUTSPOKEN PRIEST. F Childless women, particularly those of i wealth and high tocial position were ■ sovorely condemned on a rocent Sunday, I when about 3,000 men and women > listened to the sermon of tho ■ Very Rev. Father Isidore, of Chicago > a missionary of the Congregation of 1 tho Passion, in St. Michael's Mon- , astry, in West Hoboken. The f nests language was such that none who heard • him could fail to understand. After de- ; parting from tho more ethical 6ide of the - question ho launched into what ho called plain fact*. All the women in the place bowed their heads as the priest went on with his scathing denunciation of race suicide, and several of them were eo affected by his address that they cobbed aloud. " You may believe," the priest almost I shouted, "that I am prying- into your busil neso, and you may ask yourself why I am 1 delving into the affairs of your home, which you regard as your own and absolutely inviolate. I am not prying into your business. At? a matter of fact, you are prying into and interfering with my business when you step into my confessional time after time, with a loathsome regularity, and oak God. through me, to grant absolution to you for your unspeakable sin, your vicious ciime against the laws of God, of man, and of Nature." —Lays Blamo on Club Members.— After declaring that there was a secret propaganada. among the women of the nation, and mere particularly among women i of higher vdueation and intelligence, to j avoid motherhood as if it were a pest, the I pieachor said that, these chiefly were the women who were the linsl to affiliate themsclvcs with chilis having to do with civic j affair?, with woman suffrage, with dumb! animal borieties, and ether organLsatiuiis.l devoted to the civic upli't and too better- j inert of human conditions senerally. '"But that most important of all human conrli- i lions, that eojidilion which makes for the | pel puliation of tho human rare, that con- I d Irion which is the fuUilnieni. oi die* noblest i pmjx).-c. of womankind," Father Isidore j went on, " <c, tho one mosi ignored by the I women of I'm lime. They go about in the world doing a little «>methin? which may | : tend to make people better in some re- ' I si.cets, ami take this ar> absolving them i from the- 1 adiest of their duties in the world, i This, work tor civic betterment and lor the social mlcmavment of the sex is actu- | ally taken i-y many women a-s the limit of rhoir obligation in Gcd and to humanity, •when, as a matter of fact, it is the least of their duties. They take these things and wrap them about iheiiuselvets ae a cloak of respectability, and hold themselves up a.-, paragons of all that is good, when in iv-a!i;y their private lives and their private wis. and their secret then Jits, arc bare to the -omniscient eye of Cod. before whom :hey mu..t stand hi judgment.'' Poverty No Excuse.— father Isidore said the meagre income of a, husband, or the delicate health of a , wiie, uas no reason for tho avoidance i of the duty of raising a family. "God | always takes care <>!' His own," tv-nd tho! priest, "and there it; no home so humble | that lie will not cuter, v hen it is to be ! graced by the birth of a child. There it. ! no requirement of that mother, or that ] father, or thai child newly born whicli God in His mercy will not supply in some i way or another. Theio is no woman so j delicate that the divine grace will not ho visited upou, and curry her through the i crisis which occurs when she is fulfi'l'.ng her noble mission. Not long sineo a trio of physicians wero called into a houso to attend a woman who was about to enter the holy, state of motherhood, and after looking at her they decided thai, tin-re | were two Lives at stake in the ca,se —that. | if the mother was to be spared tliat other j life about to dawn upon the world must j bo saeriibed. While tho question was ] being debated between tho phys.L'iui, the husband, and the wife, the latter saying she would not agree to the suggestion ot the physicians without the com-.e-it of the priest, the priest arrived. Giving a cigar to each of the physicians, he requested them 1o withdraw from the room, and then, ktmrlh",' beside the woman's bedside, j read from his ritual and prayed, fn a i few moments tho nurse ran into the room j where the physicians were, and told them j the woman would coon be leady io receive congratulations on the arrival of a per-iV-Lliy healthy male.' child. Thus, you oca, tiie ermm of God unn a victory and science was prevented from robbing tho world of a human life.

—Charjw Unspeakably Sin.—

''To the married women who are listeni;i'4 !<> >::,■ to-ni'.;lit I t>;;y solrmtily that \;\\ can ;i<lv.TtK'o m> argument the JuhiJmenl. nf your ti-s■(i; i;jl duly in tin: world, Thcisi} 01 you who object to thb are uu'lty of unspeakable sin. It is ;i. sin of which female savages wouJd not be guilty. It us an outgrowth of in;dcvn ideas ;nxl modern toniLl ions, which have no hx-as of <*v reason. Go through life others; iw as spotless of character, as you will, you cannot atom: for your one L'teat bin —the. eieate.-l of all siiui. A husband and wife who are without children where children are possible aro worse lha.n any e,rog shop koejxir, worse than any gambler, worse ihan any kind of I hie:.' Their eert.Jlii.ali-' of v. pJ lock lose.i its in it.s highest .-ense, and 1 lie bond of matrimony becomes a. sbadowy li"." Long before tho priest bad reached i this point.in hi,-; sermon women wore, sob-I bine; iA various points in the great church, 1 while othen, .-at wit.lt heads Lowed. Men sat agape. "'l'd the youm: v. omen hero win) are unmarried there is a. warning in what I have s-.'ii.l.'' the preacher continued.

"if it is your intention to tunny without being ad" that a. wife, should "lie, then change your minds and don't wed. Shear olf your beaatilul tresses and enter ; , ronvent a,i:d become a nun. If tTn-e i<s a. voting man here who contemplates malriniony, and who tor .some mason. hr-lieves if would bo to his better iutere.-t to throimh life ehih!h>.s, let him reconsider. Let him have, hit, head sheared and go into a monastery and become, a monk. Marriage, umltr the. conditions ho contemplates would be a crime which would o.vcLie tho wrath of Heaven and cauwi thousands of devil's imps in Hell to crin with gl;-."